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tv   U.S. House of Representatives  CSPAN  August 16, 2013 10:00am-2:01pm EDT

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and minus about living to be older. i look at the young people in my family and i think, these are wonderful people. i would like to see how they end up because they are so intelligent, they are so moral. they are wonderful people. on the other hand, i look at my country and think i don't want to live to see the end of this country. also, i know two women who are over 100 that i play cards with. they don't know each other, it is two different card clubs. they are wonderful. host: final thought from our guest on this. guest: i think the caller reflects the ambivalence of the people we polled feel. while they said they did not want to avail themselves of life extension treatments, and while a majority said they thought life extension would not necessarily be a good thing for society, and majority also said that they supported medical
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research that prolonged life and thinking now about polarization of life. they are also very optimistic about the future of medical research. two thirds of the folks that we talked to said that they thought cancer or most forms of cancer would be cured in the next 30 or 40 years. so just by way of example, i think her own personal feelings in many ways reflects the results that we got on the pole. he asked, she wants to live longer to see her grandchildren and some of the other younger people in her life mature and blossom. at the same time she is worried about social issues and things like that that she is not happy with. again, that ambivalence is reflected in the work that we did. ourne last look -- host: masci,as been a bidavid
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senior research at pew. we'll will be back tomorrow for another edition of "washington journal." for now, we take you to a live event at the center for strategic and international study. the minister of foreign it affairs from iraq. it last about an hour. live coverage on c-span. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> welcome to all of you. i said to minister zebari that i could not imagine that we would ever get anybody to come on a friday in august. i told them i think it was only bill gates and the late michael jackson that could have gotten an audience out here in washington, but i think it is a testament to minister zebari's essential leadership role in iraq. has steadily who been at the heart of iraq's developments these last 10 years. he has been leading the foreign policy for iraq. he is a voice that is welcomed
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in washington. people understand him, they trust him. he is a real friend of somebody that is not tell you what you want to hear, he tells you what you need to hear. consistenten his voice. here it's here now at a time to help us understand that this is a very challenging time in iraq. the conflict in syria is having a very negative implications for iraq. we don't appreciate that. we don't understand that. his visit with us is to help us understand what this ally, and i say this word distinction lay. -- with distention. what the valet of living through and what we can do to help. i want to say thank you to the foreign minister for his leadership not only in iraq but in washington. will you please welcome this remarkable statesman, foreign minister zebari. [applause]
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>> thank you. much for your great introduction. and thank you, john, also for inviting us to the csis. and with this distinguished crowd, i know many of you in person. i worked with some of you. honored to be among you today on its friday. i am honored also, this could be the last lecture here in this building, so i have to honor the its newore he moves to building. this is another honorary thing. thank you. i am here to offer a view from iraq and the region.
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being honest and frank with you, really i will devote most of my time to the questions two q and a rather than giving you a piece of white you want to hear from you. i know many of you have many serious questions about iraq's future and whether iraq has succeeded in the challenges or it has not. -- much of what is happening today now in the the issue inand cairo, in the issue of beirut, syria, baghdad, terrorist attacks -- really they are in many ways related.
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the challenges and the opportunities and the tragedies has been taken place in iraq for the past decade. third country in our region to make the transition from dictatorship to democracy. road is longthe and hard and has been very arduous, torturous for us to make that transformation. but still worth taking. as the arab spring have shown, countries that are governed through transitions are at risk of foreign intervention and domestic violence. in iraq, we are confronting these challenges and more. but we are also making progress towards stabilization, stabilizing our society, growing
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our economy, building our democracy, and developing good relations with all of our neighbors. rule of after the saddam hussein, the better future that we seek is still a goal, not a given. but some confusions are as clear as anything can be in our region and in this time. suffering we have endured, the people of iraq and our neighbors are much better saddam is gone. i write these are forever grateful to the sacrifices that americans have made in time, treasure, and of in blood. is of course have endured even greater losses. and as the recent attacks of terrorism have reminded us --
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our ordeal is not over. i and ourh government in 10 to redeem these losses by building a future worthy of our sacrifices. ,fter decades of dictatorship three disastrous wars, international isolation, economic thing since, the displacement -- sanctions, the displacement of more than one million iraq is, and the deaths of tens of thousands more him including the latest victims of blocking, iraq is in -- is embarking on building its democratic future in building bridges within our society and with our neighbors. as iraqis, as we rebuild our the united states will
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benefit by building a long-term partnership together. we can and must develop what president obama has described and i quote "as a normal relationship between sovereign nations and equal partnership d on mutual interests and mutual respect." with our diplomatic progress, iraq is taking its space of a partner for the united states, for our neighbors, and for the family of nations. on the political front, we are building a multiethnic, multiparty democracy with respect to the rule of law. our democratic process is moving forward at a strong and steady pace. placecal elections took in april of this year. there will be regional elections
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in september of this year, and our legislative and general elections will take place next spring, 2014. which will determine our national leadership, and that will be a very important thing to watch. we have a government of national unity. now all the communities purchase of eight in the workings of the government and of the parliament. yes, we have differences of , as all democracies do, but we are working together. slowly but surely, our efforts are achieving results. we are promoting human rights. there has been violations, which we had met, but there are constant efforts to improve on that and to be responsive. and also the freedom of expression and advancements of women.
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there have been demonstrations incidents in iraq and many provinces, the western part of provinces forni the last eight months. livehave cut those, they sentence -- they have sentence, but the government has not resulted to the same methods that egyptian recently used or deployed. all the political parties have accepted election as a method of power shedding and peaceful change. to decide their own future with voting, not violence. on the economic front, we are growing and diversifying. we have the world's fastest- growing economy, expanding by 10.5% in 2012.nd
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according to bank of america merrill lynch. we will grow by 8.2% this year, beating china for the fifth straight year. the energy front, our oil production has increased by 50% since 2005. iraq a expects to increase oil production to 4.5 million barrels by the end of 2014 and 9 million barrels a day by 2020. as the international energy agency has reported, iraq is poised to double our export of oil by the decade of 2015. -- of 2050. we will use our strained global oil markets.
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in spite of this progress, we have challenges that we are working to address. 90% of our economy depends on oil. unemployment rate is 11%, our poverty line rate is 23%. although there has been significant progress over the last few years, and we think the development millennium goals set by the united nations. in order to diversify our economy beyond energy, iraq is investing oil revenues in education and crucial development projects, including restoration of power and rebuilding our transportation system. our economy will benefit from our progress on the germanic front as well. last month, the united nations security council removed iraq
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literally from chapter seven sanction regime, which impose economic and other sections on direct after saddam hussein invaded kuwait 22 years ago this month. are working with the international monetary fund as well as the world bank and the arab league and the oic and many other regional and international organizations as a fully responsible member again of the international immunity. community. now we are moving toward a market that is friendly toward foreign investments. , whatans can provide that our nations need through investment and trade, not charity and aid. expertise on energy, technologies, engineering, design, construction, and financial services. tremendous americans
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investment opportunities. developing and servicing schools, bridges, highways, healthcare, water treatment, telecommunications, and much more. this is what our agreement for the strategic framework agreement covers between iraq and he united states. nothing no mistake, that we build together will be done in less we win our war against terrorism and the war to , ensuree the country security for all the people of iraq. we see the violence in iraq and the terrible toll that it has taken daily. -- thatave heard about compels your own country to close your missions, 22 missions
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in the middle east and north african regions. all qaeda is behind the terrorist attacks against america and iraq. at a time when you do united states is seeking allies against terrorism, we want to work with you against our common in any. we understand what is at stake. it is our fight for survival, crucial for national and regional policy. regional peace and to the security of our people. we are working in close corporation with international communities and our neighboring countries to fight all sorts and every manifestation of terrorism , whatever its sources, whatever its intention, wherever we find it. these terrorists are seeking to
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destabilize iraq because they see our political, economic, and diplomatic process as a -- progress as a threat to the desperation on which they feed. if americans are tempted to conclude that our concerns with our reputationly and it is extreme, then think to yourself how would you respond if a terrorist organization were operating on your soil, its oniliates are operating hours. together with the threat against american embassies, the violence on our soil is an example of why al qaeda is still a threat to all of us. just yesterday, they bombed five .ospitals not police stations, not
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government buildings -- no, five hospitals, and deliberately. we have also seen the attack on whichst day of eids, caused these lives of many people. eyes off ofakes its the middle east, then there will be a resurgence of al qaeda or , and moreates menacing than ever we have seen. our concerns with the consequences of terrorists having next-door shaped our views about syria. for americans, syria is more than 5000 miles away. for us, syria is right on our doorstep.
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long,order with syria is wron and therefore we are deeply concerned about the ability of terrorists to use and cross these borders. that is why we are participating in the search for political solution in syria. that will reduce the violence and diminish the role of the extremists. it is not easy, this political solution, as we see the balance of forces moving this way. but that is one of the viable options for the people of syria. only the syrian people can decide and determine their future. table duringhe talks, and the final communicator was produced by the ieetings, had a strong iraq
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input, and even kneeling which that was adopted by all the participants. now, there are new talks about ii, but any thgeneva according to what we have heard here in washington and new york, this will only happen maybe in october or maybe later. there are no fixed dates yet about the possibility. to support the legitimate aspirations of the syrian people. freedom, democracy, self- determination. adoptas tried to independent, neutral position. not to side with one side against the other, but to seek and to support a peaceful, democratic solution in syria. there is no somebody whatsoever
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regime. bath this in fact, at one time when we called the international community to hold the syrian government responsible for terrorist acts in iraq, we were the only voice, all of our allies and friends abandon us in a call. unfortunately, there are some who have called for iraq used to sides in syriath and have used religious justifications on the basis of sectarian confrontation. iraqit me be clear -- the volunteers who are fighting on either side in syria do not represent the policy of the iraqi government in any way. they are also -- opposed to the
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smuggling of arms to syria. the government of iraq is committed to implement a u n resolutions, promoting peace in syria. in keeping with our position against militarization of the conflict, we are doing our best to prevent shipments of arms across our borders by whoever. withoutannot do this the capabilities and a sophisticated, it integrated defense system that we lack. this is what we have been asking .rom our friends to help us this is one more reason why the united states and direct me to deepen our partnership and to combat terrorism. we need to continue to fully implement the agreement that our countries signed before the
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withdrawal of american forces in 2011. that means expedited delivery of promised military as well as assistance in the counterterrorism and enhancing of our security forces. short of reintroducing american troops in iraq. nobody is calling for the redeployment of american forces, but under the strategic framework agreement, there is a great deal of room, of space for enhance corporations to our common fight against terrorism. iraq is also in the process of purchasing $10 billion worth of military equipment from mainly the united states and other countries. we are paying for it with our own revenues, and we want to buy
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the hardware from the american allies. our recent purchases of 30 testifies to our potential as a market for american companies, american products, and american services. the view from iraq and the region also includes opportunities as well as challenges as we have outlined. past two years, relations between iraq and kuwait have improved in or monthly. in fact, there have been mutual visits between the two countries at the highest level. the problems are being resolved through the joint committee and the u.s. security counsel on juneon number 2105 27 of this year. complianceed iraq's
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with our obligations toward kuwait. the only permitting issues, which is not a controversial issue because there have been mutual agreement, and payment, competition, which iraq is doing. , isountry is literally technically out of chapter seven. now, we are focusing on the future relationship between our countries so that together we can promote peace, stability, in the region. there is a new hope for our neighbors through our region. to iran havingt peaceful nuclear power program, but we would be one of the first countries to object to iran possessing nuclear weapons
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because of the past in their history. in fact, we favor the you know -- universalization's of the nuclear city and strict adherence to all of its obligations, particularly in the middle east. iran aids to convince the international community that their program is only for peaceful purposes and the world community needs to engage with iran to assess the issues that have isolated it. we are encouraged by the election in iran and the victory , and theent rouhani selection of his new team. been trying to be useful or to be helpful in reaching an understanding on this very important issue.
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in order to reach diplomatic solutions to the crisis of the nuclear program, iraq has worked in cooperation with the islamic republic of iran and the european union to hold the 1 group in the 5+ baghdad last may. iraq will continue its efforts corporation -- and cooperation with the countries. as the fifth nation in our neighborhood to abandon weapons of mass destruction, iraq anently showed -- chaired international conference. just imagine 20 years ago where we were. we seek a middle east free of nuclear weapons. toward that goal, we support efforts to convene a u.n. conference. iraq seeks to force friendship
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with our neighbors and a strategic partnership with the united states. together we can build a future of peace, prosperity, and democracy worthy of the sacrifices of iraqis and americans in our time. and the hope and dreams of generations yet to come. i.t. white very much. -- i thank you very much. [applause] >> mr. minister, thank you very much for that statement. sign both of the complexity of your agenda and the skill with which you handle it. the minister has agreed to take questions, but i ask that you wait for a microphone and that you will identify your self, and that we only ask one question
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until everybody has had a chance so that we can work our way around this rather full room. we will start right here, if we may. thank you. i am a palestinian journalist in town. excellency, what are the safeguards that you're implementing now to ensure that back to thet slide 2007,f 2005 and especially with emerging al qaeda? how would that figure into a new security agreement without introducing boots on the ground? thank you. a tactician or of iraqi
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politics -- as a practitioner of -- i politics, i do not believe iraq is going toward sectarian war. responded,have not have not been influenced at all by these deliberate attacks to ignite sectarian or civil war. there was the last string of troops in kurdistan or the theute in areas between central government and the regional government, but nothing happened and the problems were resolved peacefully. you have seen many people abandon the government in iraq -- kurds, sunnis, and others. but then through dialogue and
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interaction, i think now everybody has rejoined the government to work together. secondly, we have been there before in 2005 through 2007 and we have seen how terrible that situation was when we were counting hundreds of bodies in the streets of baghdad and so on. really, there is self-restraint by all of the communities not to be dragged again into that. although civil wars and others -- that does not happen by decisions him a by an incident or another incident, but we all followed how the surge worked in .raq and how successfully there is still a great deal of expertise and benefits we are drawing from these efforts. secondly, politics has taken
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over in iraq. most of the iraqis, even those who were opposed to the new iraq or the new regime, are embracing democracy. they are all waiting for the next election to change their future. we have seen the recent local elections, how the people have spoken -- everywhere. they are waiting for the next elections in 2014. as i said before, really we have inonstrations and sit-ins many parts of the country for the past eight months and the government never resulted in violence except in one or two incidents, and i cannot justify these violations whatsoever. but, generally, the government to golerated this so far on without any intimidation. and the dialogue is continuing.
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the other element of restraint is the religious establishment. the shia religious establishment has stood strongly against any engagement and retaliations or responses. there are militias. there are forces on both sides. but, really, they have not reached the level of seeing the country dragged into a new civil or sectarian war. so security wise it may not be stable, but it will be manageable and till the next year. now there are no plans actually to have a new sofa. we have concluded the sofa. it is done, over. , theve another agreement strategic framework agreement, that is a long-term agreement that defines the iraq and united
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states' relationship for many years to come. ,he joint mission of security it addresses political issues on services and energy. i have attended the fifth meeting of the joint committee on political and diplomatic with secretary kerry yesterday. this is going on. -- but i think there is room for more security cooperation between iraq and damascus. david mack, middle east institute. u.s.-iraqi diplomacy. i want to salute would you have done in terms of reintegrating iraq into the international community. i think future historians are going to rate you right there
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with the great foreign minister in terms of what you have accomplished. is my hard question for you -- what is the outlook for improving iraq's troubled relations with two of your larger neighbors, both turkey and saudi arabia? >> thank you, david. i appreciate, one of the first american diplomats in my career before becoming foreign minister atiraq, to meet david mack the state department. i remember that meeting very , immediately after the uprising. so it is good to see you, david. a friend and i have a great deal of respect. your question is very important. we and the iraqi government have been discussing this very closely. about this, honest
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there are two countries that have an influence over iraqi and sunni communities. saudi arabia and turkey, for different reasons. we have good relations with egypt, with the arab countries. for your information, now in 93q we have nearly 92 or diplomatic missions, including 15 arab embassies. those days of boycott of iraq, not accepting this alien body, are gone. even the southeast have diplomatic presentation -- even audis haveast -- s diplomatic representation. officials for dictating on an elected iraqi
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government, what to do and not to do. i think they recognize that .here is another way turkey is our largest trading partner. actually now we have between $12 billion and $14 billion of trade with turkey. transit and so on, iraq is the only viable route for them to the gcc. i am planning to meet with the turkish officials soon, maybe in , for talks tova improve that. we have not broken relations. we have communications and contacts. there are a number of things we can do to improve relations or to introduce some confidence- building measures. one of them, we have a treaty to
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exchange prisoners. we have iraqi prisoners in saudi arabia. have some prisoners in iraqi jails. we are almost at the final stages of concluding that. we are also considering some business relations with saudi arabia through reopening the border point between iraq and saudi arabia. david, for your information, i agoin riyadh a few months and i discovered really that the andi trade through jordan kuwait is nearly $4 billion u.s. to narrow the sectarian rhetoric on both sides in order to seek healthy relations. resolving problems with kuwait have helped with the saudis and
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members. but this is an important challenge for us to work on that very seriously. >> barbara from the atlantic council. always a presser -- always a pleasure to see you, minister zebari. i wanted to get more detail on your views on the new iranian government and what iraq is prepared to do to try to facilitate the nuclear talks. presidentn tehran for rouhani? what is your sense on how the u.s. is receiving the overtures from the new iranian government? thank you. >> thank you, barbara.
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i believe the election of president rouhani was a statement by iran and the islamic republic of iran to the international community and the world that they mean serious business. otherwise, there are many ways his success of his election could have been scuffled from the first round, to force him into a second round. but there was the establishment to go along with this outcome. also, he has drawn a great deal of support from the reformist movement. leader is an incredible who is a member of the regime. he is not weak. he has very strong relations with all the key leaders in iran.
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so he is a member of the revolution. he cannot be challenged. hadstatement we have calling for moderation, calling the suffering of of the iranian people by the implicit vision -- by the imposition of sanctions and political isolations, i think they were very clear and loud. i was in -- i was not in iran during the inauguration but the vice president was there. the prime minister was there also. so the feedback we have had is that there would be change, but this change will not come immediately, as many people expect. the key elements everybody will be watching is the five plus one meeting in september.
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whether they will present any new approach, i personally doubt it, i do not think it will happen that soon, but pressures are mounting on them for solution. my message has been really not to underestimate this change in iran, but we have to wait and see because the proof in the pudding is in eating, as they say. pick up on one part of that question. she also asked about whether helping tony role facilitate some change in the world's relations with iran -- is that one of your ambitions? >> a believe iraq serves as a bridge. we have played that role in the
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past. , thedicated in my speech nuclear talks in baghdad last year was an indication that we have an interest to help facilitate and not fall under the pressure but to communicate fairly and honestly, and we will continue to do that because we have a vested interest. >> all the way in the back. >> mr. minister, in the kurdish areas of syria, you have a fight between the kurds and al qaeda. the president of the krg has said he will use force to protect the kurds. what is the position of the iraqi government
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for a segment of iraq sending forces across the border into syria? is that part of your policy? and what do you think should happen with the syrian kurds? thank you. >> thank you, and good to see you. this is a good question again. in fact, there has been fighting -- between many of the extremist groups with the pyd party there which is in charge. been reports of the killings of hundreds of civilians. this has raised alarms in the kurdish community throughout the
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region, but also in the krg. to defend orng protect the kurds. but these decisions really need to be courted native. we have discussed it in baghdad. the iraqi government, prime minister maliki and the government are fully aware of the tension in syria and the of al qaeda and the nexis taking place across the border and in syria. state.laring the islamic but i believe that really he will ask the newly formed group toational investigate us before making a decision. going across the
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tigris are fighting another war there at the borders. there have been discussions between the syrian opposition recently to resolve this conflict. but any decisions i think will be courted native with the government of iraq. this will not be unilateral by the krg. be coordinated with the government of iraq, any decisions. >> a few threat from al qaeda in iraq, i believe the numbers have gone from about five to 10 suicide bombings a month up to about 30 a month. that is a big escalation. what do you attribute to that escalation, and what is your government doing about it? >> thank you.
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that is why we are here basically, to seek more help and support. really, the al qaeda network and are a realtes serious challenge, let's say, to the stability of iraq and of the region. also, we see this emerging between al qaeda in iraq and n ousra in syria and other affiliate groups that are flourishing in this kind of circumstance. experience in combating al qaeda and iraq. it is technology and on al qaeda. networks and fighting them. the counterterrorism technique, we need to benefit from these
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and forge better forcesns with security to enhance our abilities and capabilities in terms of weapons, equipment, technologies. because it is not going to stop al qaeda. .e have our own failure as the iraqi government, we have admitted them. but the challenge is really beyond our capabilities. minister, good to see you again. mark. the issuetalk about of counterterrorism. you have identified it as probably a key issue inside of iraq right now. it has brought you here to
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washington, d.c. yet, you have preemptively taken off any option of u.s. military support, what you referred to as boots on the ground. is that an iraqi decision not to ask for american troop support to provide that expertise or is that an american political decision placed upon you or a combination of both? sure --y we are not boots on the ground, we have nearly one million, and thanks to the u.s. for helping to raise and train these. so quite a number of boots on the ground. request fromot the my government or to reintroduce u.s. troops. as you know, we have security cooperation with you, within the seer. he -- within the security office
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in baghdad home and the strategic framework agreement. there is room to support and enhance iraqi democracy and support. agreementreed on that , we knew in the future we may need future assistance and help. -- you as any ways military commander know that. there are many ways the military can do to provide help, short of sending troops into iraq. it is not the request of my government, actually, and i do not think there is any appetite or willingness here also to send troops abroad or to engage into another conflict now. >> thank you.
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i am josh rogan with newsweek and the daily beast. as you know, increased security cooperation is one of the main requests that the iraqi government has to the u.s. lawmakers in washington are worried because they believe that it iraq is still allowing airspace toiraqi promote the flow of arms to the assad regime. there are concerns that the iraqi government may use u.s. weapons towards political ends to marginalize the opposition, as we have seen in the past. what assurances can you give us on both fronts? what steps are you taking to stop the arms flow of iran? and as we approach new elections, how do we know u.s. weapons will not be used for domestic or political purposes? thank you. >> definitely my government will abide by all the rules and regulations that you hear in the
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united states or congress will imposed on these arms, not only to iraq. we will abide by that definitely for these weapons not to be used .or domestic use or improperly it would be used for the defense of the country. on the flight of iranian using , let me give you that reality. symptoms we are talking geographically about the situation. for your information, iraq does not have a single fighter plane up to now. ,t has a couple of helicopters
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some training planes, small planes, but it does not have a single aircraft to protect its airspace. iraq does not have integrated self-defense to protect itself. we have requested it. we are waiting for the delivery. so that is the situation when we capabilitiesaq's and deterrence capabilities to prevent others from using its airspace. not support the iranians or any others to use our airspace because it goes against our policy of taking an independent, neutral position here. not to militarize the conflict in any way. but we have done a number of inspections. these inspections could not be
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some here in the united states, and we choose only those who carry, let's say, legitimate equipment or material. but we have raised the possibility here really -- i mean, we will continue to live up to our commitments here. there are resolutions barring this from leaving iran. we do not have the capabilities of enforcing this. thesecally we have made demands. so who is going to reinforce that? the security council, who? we have taken note actually of the serious concerns about this flight. i can tell you now they have gone down.
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they may not have stopped, but believe me, we have no ways of making sure that what kind of weapons, equipment -- not only iran that is providing syria arms and ammunition's. russia and other sources. these are seen daily by u.s. satellite and imagery, how much weapons are going into syria. viewre, we do not want to iraq as a whipping boy for failing to hold others to their commitment. but we will live up to our commitment. livenk we will do more to up to our commitment to stop, to prevent any further flight.
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again, there is an international agreement and arrangement's the twin countries -- and arrangement between countries. >> mr. minister, i am an independent color on iraq for a long time. i would like to get -- i am an independent scholar on iraq for a long time. i would like to give you a warm welcome. i would like to get back to oil. one of the things inhibiting investment is the lack of a hydrocarbon law. how close is iraq really from achieving a hydrocarbon law? and please give us some sense of .ll these pipelines there is the independent one from curtis dan to turkey -- from curtis dan -- kurdistan to
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turkey and the others -- what are we to make of those and how realistic are they? >> thank you. good to see you here. and same spirit. hydrocarbon law is one of the key political challenges for the rock or for the new iraq. on the basis of the iraqi constitution that gives all power and wealth among let's say, among the region, among the people. only recently the iraqi parliament passed a designation to enhance the powers of governance, of the local authorities any rock. it had -- in iraq. it has been a political issue and baghdad, the
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hydrocarbon law. there was an agreement in 2007 that was accepted by both sides but it did not materialize. because of the deteriorations of andtions between the krg baghdad, there has been a separation of thinking, of planning, of using the oil resources and approaches with turkey. and iran also. pessimistic.not i am optimistic for finding a resident -- a resolution for this. it benefits the country. it benefits everybody. it enhances the iraqi oil industry. the issue of ownership, the issue of reliability.
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other oil investors to work in iraq is a very important subject. it is a top issue in all of the political meetings. but whether it could be an act it soon, i do not want to give you any -- whether it can be enacted soon, i do not want to give you any action. this is part of the new iraq. it has to be resolved with partnership, with participation from a with genuine resolutions of the key political issues that are hindering iraq. i personally believe there is a better atmosphere now, better communication. recently, after the exchange of visits by prime minister melekeok -- prime minister members from baghdad,
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they are working on forming serious technical commissions to look at the issues. there is also related to the , there are two issues that are doable but it depends a great deal on the political understanding between the leaders. yes, the krg is trying to enhance its position by opening up to turkey. turkey's relations with baghdad whicht at the best stage, is something we're trying to do, normalize relations between ankara and baghdad, including the krg. are also commercial issues, to be honest with you. there are no agreements. andgree that very soon
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baghdad there would be a meeting of this commission to address the issue. look at plans and see whether we can finalize the hydrocarbon law year orhe end of this wait until next year's elections which is most likely. >> last question in the back. i am a independent consultant. a lot of people here feel like there has been a lack of political reconciliation in iraq and that it has been u.s. policy whichport an agreement has not been implemented in iraq. following up on another question, i would like to give you the opportunity to explain
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-- why should the united states sell arms to iraq when, in fact, many people to leave the lack of political reconciliation is contributing to some of the violence today? .hanks >> thank you. political reconciliation is the for thee for iraq, stability of iraq. i think all the key leaders believe that this is the way forward. , withhe hydrocarbon law normalizing relations with saudi arabia, with turkey, and all the questions have been appointed questions about the core issue in iraq. the political reconciliation is moving. it is not stagnant. i mean, look at the representatives of the sunni community or from parliamentary blocs. in thee represented
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parliament and in government. they may feel they are underrepresented or marginalized. more about that, definitely. , the lessons that came out of this local election was very, very important. they could believed do with the majoritarian democracy or political majority government, one sect or one group can run by itself, but --y'd proved it could not but they proved they cannot. they could win, but they cannot govern. i think everybody realized and recognized that there has to be an inclusive democracy, not a sectarian democracy, for this country to have any future. heard ainister, i have
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lot of foreign ministers speak. i do not think any has a more complex agenda and i do not think anyone handles it as well as he have demonstrated today. i am also humbled by the fact i think you have more friends in washington than i do, and i live here. [laughter] thank you for honoring us today. we look forward to welcoming you in our new building. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]
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tens of thousands of muslim brotherhood supporters took to the streets today in several cairo neighborhoods and other towns across egypt in defiance of the military state of emergency. out of mosquesed after midday prayers for the day of rage.
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military vehicles sealed off main squares in the egyptian capital. troops with machine guns stood at the ready. yesterday president obama announced the u.s. will not take part in military exercises with egypt. he did not address military aid to the country. "washington journal" talked with a reporter this morning about that aid. on theosh rogan joins us phone, senior correspondent for newsweek's daily beast. tell us about this a question. what is your sense of the aid issue at this point? how much aid are we talking about? what does it mean to the country of egypt, and what kind of leverage does it represent for the u.s.? guest: the u.s. is committed to giving egypt about $1.3 billion of military aid and about another $250 million in direct economic and other support for the civilian government.
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the military aid has been going on for years, a result of the peace deal that president carter egypt.between israel and it has become a political howball, this debate over much should we pressure the byptian government to abide the respect for human rights, the rule of law, and violence against civilians, and now we see the violence of this week. there is pressure in congress on the administration to suspend the aid. a few important things to note, first, the military aid has already been given to the egyptian military largely. so there is not another decision pending for the obama administration until about april 2014. moreover, it is important to gulf countries have pledged over $13 billion, more
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than 10 times the annual u.s. aid. it is unclear that pulling the aid would have such a dramatic effect on the egyptian military. time for very critical them. third, the obama administration has been very clear that they are not interested in using aid as political leverage. this issue has come up several times since the revolution. the position really has not changed. theyould not expect that will suspend the eight anytime soon. describe the pressure in congress you have mentioned. how deep is it? who is the pressure coming from? guest: sure. the pressure for conditions on aid came from the morsi government was elected and congress passed into law several restrictions on the aid that
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would have required the obama administration to cut off the aid if the morsi government having done several different things in the area of political and economic liberalization. the morsi government didn't do any of those things. the obama waived those restrictions and nullifying congressional attendance and gave egypt the aid anyway. then what happened was there were several people in congress, the chairman of the state and foreign appropriations committee of the senate, but also marco rubio, john mccain and others came up with ideas of increasing restrictions of the aid. so there's always a limit to what congress can force the theynistration to do here.
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always come with waivers. and they give the a dazed on national security concerns. and in the end, if the administration really wants to give the egyptian military aid, they'll find a way to do it. host: i want to read you one quote out of the "wall street journal" this morning and get you to elaborate if you can. there is a real possibility of civil war. this from one senior u.s. official briefed on the intelligence. there is a dangerous possibility egypt goes away of syria.-- possibility that egypt goes the way of syria. your thoughts? guest: well, there are some similarity and some areas that this is not syria.there is a lot of foreign influence in egypt right now. in syria, we see divisions. on one side, you have saudi arabia on the united emirates, and kuwait lining up with the
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military and the interim government. on the other side, you have turkey lining up with the muslim brotherhood. right now i would not say it has reached the point of civil war. it is not on that scale. we have not seen the level of atrocities in syria -- i mean, in egypt that we have seen in syria perpetrated by the government. everyone is trying to avoid getting to that stage. host: what will you be looking for in the next couple of hours or days both here and in egypt? guest: we're looking for signs that the military is going to decide however much violence and persecution has conducted and allowed for some space. hoping both sides will move into some sort of discussion that might lead to negotiation. in the end, there's very little
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that washington or any other foreign country can do to force the interim government to stop it, sort of campaign of violence against civilians. but, you know, the egyptian government at some point will decide that they've done their job that they've cleared the streets and it's time to return to militants, calm and move onto -- time to return to relative calm and move onto the next state which is some sort of political process that may lead to some sort of reconciliation. host: josh rogin, thanks a lot for your time and your insight this morning. quick since the conversation, the ap reports at least 17 people have been killed across egypt after tens of thousands of muslim brotherhood supporters took to the street in defiance of the state of emergency following bloodshed earlier this
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week. five policeman were killed across the country. violence erupted after protesters took to the streets today, responding to the muslim brotherhood's call following the .eath of 638 people thursday minnesota senator amy klobuchar will be in iowa tonight speaking to democrats. moines register says she is the first democratic hopeful to visit iowa for a possible 2016 presidential campaign. we will have live coverage starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern. span's encore c- presentation of first ladies -- >> she was very proud of her quest -- her husband, no question about that. once again, she was a very private person. it was fine for her husband to be in politics and to go to washington, but she did not want
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to be part of that. yet, she constantly supported his decision to do that. she was very much a supporter during the impeachment. were other things attributed to her, that should could be back home and things of that nature, but she obviously believed her husband would be acquitted and would be proud of him when he was rich cap sang she absolutely knew it would happen. >> the encore presentation continues tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. >> you are right in my view to fully fund the military since 9/11, but we deprive the state department of funds. as a result, there is an enormous gap between the size and power of the pentagon and the size and power at the state department, now illustrated with two examples from bob gates who is now standing secretary of
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defense for president bush and president obama. he gave a brilliant speech a couple years ago. secretary gates -- we have more military personnel in one carrier battle group, the u.s. than we have american diplomats all over the world. here is another if that does not convince you. we have more members of the armed forces marching bands of the navy, air force, army, koreans, true fact, then american diplomats. >> the history of u.s. diplomatic efforts in the middle east, call for a return to diplomacy. saturday morning at 10:00 -- 10:00n c-span eastern. on book tv, the american dream. saturday at 7:30. on american history tv, why change the story when the truth is more exciting? the founding
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fathers, sunday at noon eastern. emily's list endorses democratic women and kicked off an event to elect a woman president at a recent town hall meeting in iowa. u.s.irst woman elected senator from missouri is joined by a panel of democratic strategists. this discussion is about an hour, 20 minutes. >> good morning. the madam iowa and president iowa town hall. let me state the obvious. it is no coincidence why the hawkeye state was chosen for the first madam president tour. iowa is to successful presidential campaigns what kate kennedy was to the first and
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later flights to the moon. iowa is the launchpad. [applause] now some might say that we are awfully ambitious in our aim to elect a woman to the white house in 2016. let's be clear, this is just the beginning of our ambition. we are here to build a pipeline of women for the future. take their place on the presidential ticket not only in 2024, and beyond. [applause] you and i want our daughters and granddaughters to grow up in an america where electing a woman
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aesident is as common as electing a woman governor a woman senator. ,e want our daughters to aspire not to be america's first woman president, but to be the fifth or the 10th woman's president -- or 10th woman president. [applause] soonery is going to come than you think. and let the record show that the journey began here, today, in iowa. [applause] watching ajoin me in wonderful video. >> the future of washington, d.c. action.
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>> thank you. i always dreamed of this, standing here, and it is because of you all that i can. the millions who stood up your my mom told me i could be anything i want. you know, it did not used to be like that. >> a long time ago women did not even get to vote. >> my mom told me that when she grew up, no one ever thought there would be a woman president. can you imagine? they were all boys. [laughter] -- fought 200 years ago. >> i am here because the elected women before me. >> i am here because my friends said i could run for office. women lead, new ideas are formed. economies strive and communities grow stronger. that is the american way.
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we do not give up. [cheers] [applause] >> please join me in welcoming a member of audio or dash of idea what radio who will be our moderator. my colleagues, welcome to this isn't. let me introduce our first panelist who has managed successful campaigns for jim webb and amy klobuchar. she 2004ed oklahoma for the presidential candidate.
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she was part of a 2012 campaign in iowa. welcome. [applause] our next panelist is a former financial consultant running a household with six children these days. she won a seat in the iowa 2006 and served one term. she is running for the third congressional seats of iowa. lee's welcome the former senator. -- please welcome the former senator. [applause] our third panelist was director for howard dean's presidential campaign in 2004 and 2006. she managed a successful campaign out of montana. in 2008, she managed al franken 's campaign and the recount.
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[laughter] 2010, named president of the group hosting this event. please welcome stephanie. [applause] our final guest is a former prosecutor and the first woman to give birth while being an active member of the missouri legislature. [laughter] in 2006 she became the first woman elected to the u.s. senate. reelection inon one of the most-watched races in the country. its past june, she said is important to start early. please welcome the senior senator from the state of missouri claire mccaskill. [applause]
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senator mccaskill, let's begin with you. why is it important to start early? >> well, i think we have to realize that in a day of citizens united where there is huge money that can be written behind closed doors and flood airwaves with distorted information, the best anecdote for that is a mootness. to confessif we want -- in fact, let's raise our hand if you spend more than $20 on the internet. [laughter] to do it. know how you click and you put in your credit card. we have to have millions of people engaged and ready for what will be a pivotal race in american history. and that is about getting
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everyone excited now about what inope will be that moment 2017 when we all get to say "madam president" to hillary rodham clinton. [applause] if she does not run, would you? >> no. [laughter] >> why not? >> well, first -- >> [inaudible] [applause] >> thank you. reasonst of complicated , some of which are personal. here.ghter lily is stand up so they can see how proud i am of you. [applause] some of it is family. be very closeto to a presidential campaign, so i
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have seen it up close and ugly. i know what it really is about and how hard it is. and i am really fortunate to be in the u.s. senate, representing the state that is not even as and i know you all struggle in iowa with some extreme elements of the republican party having more muscle than they deserve. way,ate is certainly that so i feel a particular obligation to stay in this office and do the very best i can for all the values that we hold dear. [applause] >> stephanie, folks in the audience may have read stories about you recently. you decided not to go back to your hometown and run. why not? >> well, truthfully, there are two reasons. i am not currently
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living in the state of montana. it has been a while. the other reason is right here before us. on the emily's list madam president campaign ammo we are so close here to making history that i wanted to be part of that. and i wanted to really help build this movement of the wastors -- that the senator just talking about of engaging to find the right candidate, the best candidate, and we know that there are great women in the pipeline ready to be the next president, whether it is hillary clinton or amy klobuchar of minister anna, kristin hildebrand -- amy klobuchar of minnesota. 2020,e to look at 2016, and 2024. >> is this hillary clinton's
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first campaign event? [laughter] >> is she here? that would be huge. the honest truth here is that the madam president campaign is really to initiate a discussion about the importance of women's leadership in this country, whether it is in the white house which we would truly like to see, in the senate, or right here in iowa where i believe we are going to make history in 2014 i elected one, maybe two, women to congress for the first time. this is so critically important to what is happening every day in our families and our communities homage to have women's voices there. from congress to the governor's steps to the white house. we have to on building up momentum. yearnator, earlier this use of family obligations would keep you from running. what changed your mind? >> i think a recognized that we
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can do better than i think we are doing right now. [applause] so the people of iowa asked me to take a send -- take a second look at it and my family agreed with it, so here we are. in 2012 one of the most well- known women of iowa failed in congress.r what did you learn about that contest? is a race where we have an experienced woman running against an incumbent that is up there being part of the solution but also part of the problem. i come with a wealth of experience being a state senator that took part and let the
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charge with wonderful pieces of dress then that a statewide smoking ban, equal pay things that my-- opponent has voted against. the reorganization of state government that saved hundreds of millions of dollars -- taking that experience and putting t it againstom latham is a huge contrast so we can make a huge difference there. >> jessica, what are the lessons of the christie vill sack campaign? >> [indiscernible] one of the greatest lessons we learned is -- >> still can't hear you. can win in iowa.
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there is a lot of women here who have run and tried and a lot of great women who are going to win next year. first of all, i want to say that christie was a great and today. she raised more money, actually, in iowa than tom harkin did in his races. she was formidable but the district was too difficult and had she ran in the third congressional district, she would be a congresswoman today. i truly believe that. [applause] from a political operative standpoint, it is time to stop saying that women cannot win in iowa. it is just not the case. i did learn there are women in this district that she ran in that have a difficult time voting for women. becky knows - but there are many more voters that make up for those people. for anyone to come in and say hillary or anyone else will have a hard time winning iowa is not
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true. i think what is really interesting and -- in some of our polling at emily's list recently, we did polling in iowa and we wanted to debunk that. we know women can win here. they are winning in the legislature and we know that this can be and it was clear -- 96% of caucus-goers said they were ready to vote for a woman for the white house. 96%. 95% think there will be a woman in the race. in thenk i woman will be white house after 2016. this state is more than ready and it is more ready in that polling the sum of our other ballot -- battleground states around the country . i think because of the christievilsack race and the historic 2012 election were so won their women elections where we have an historic number of women in the senate, there is momentum
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building and we have to keep that going. to stephanie earlier alluded two women who announced their candidacy in the first congressional district, monica vernon and - what does your day to tell you about the success i might have in that particular district? >> i think we have a great opportunity here. after 28 years of work, we have three women running in one district. a problem 20 years ago. that is a good thing and i expect to see more of these races in the future. we should have more women running in every race. a really good thing. we got a great opportunity and it is possible that we would send two women to the house of representatives. >> what to the registration numbers tell you about the potential for democrats? >> i think this is working now. you mean in stacy's district?
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the first district is interesting. there is a lot of people in that district who are from the same down,nd how it will break obviously, the person who wins the primary will win the general election. if we have three strong women, it gives us a great shot to actually elect a woman there and, obviously, in stacy's district, we had a few conversations and it is a 50/50 district. there is no reason why stacy should not win and become the next hungers woman. -- congresswoman. there are so many opportunities and if anyone comes a way with this today, we will elect women in iowa before the presidential race starts so nobody can come in here and again and say that i once don't like women. >> stephanie, what about the prospect that has been raised of having three women in a primary that will split the female vote? some of us have seen this.
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>> we have to remember that this is progress. sometimes progress is painful. there was a time when i first started running 30 years ago, there were no role models out there. yes, there was barbara jordan, geraldine ferraro, a few but not like today. not where when you turn on c- span, you look on the senate floor and you see flashes of color everywhere. [laughter] by the way, we have to build bigger bathrooms. we have so many women. when you have women in the pipeline, which is what this is all about -- it is not just about madam president. madame president is a metaphor for enabling young women to see that the city council races worth it. the school board races worth it. the state legislative seat is worth it.
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that city council seat is worth it and as we populate all those places with more women, they will but heads. but we cannot get stressed about that. we have to realize that is a sign of strength and the more women we have out there running, yes, there will be a few times we will have to arm wrestle. there will be a few disagreements. at the end of the day, we will be rolled modeling millions of young women that this is a career that is exciting, challenging, it is rewarding, and it's worth it. >> also, if you have multiple men in a primary, no one asks how they will split the male vote. [applause] >> exactly right. >> you just vote for the best candidate. it is about the campaign and the debate. the senator is right. the concept of one woman and she will carry the water for all women in the country -- who is that woman? i would like to meet her or the
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one man who carries all the water for every man in the country. it is not helping the work. what is going to work is when we have an equal number of women and men sitting at those decision-making tables, making policies for our country moving forward and having the debates we are having. they are incredibly important. senator mccaskill is in the middle of one of these debates right now with the senate armed services committee about what to do related to what is happening with sexual assault in the military. here is the thing about that debate -- something will get done and 20 years ago, when there was the tailhook scandal, some of you remember, nothing happened. women, a number of women, coming up with solutions so we will get to the right solution. something is going to happen. as a means to have women's voices there and i am thankful we see the the numbers we see. >> there has been a discussion
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about congress. three -- 23ly congresswomen that have been female. it's great. >> only 23 women have been elected governor but there is no female candidate in iowa. anybody want to run for governor? talk to me afterwards. >> that would be wonderful. keephe truth is, we tilting the pipeline. as i look forward, i am sure there are folks thinking about this but the truth is, we've got great women running for congress. this is how we build the pipeline. this is the success in states around the country but these governorships are really important. i'm glad you brought it up. right now, there was only one democratic woman governor in the country and she is in new hampshire, we've got to change that.
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we are recruiting vl lot of wo, hopefully, if all goes well, the great stennis -- senator wendy davis of texas will think about running for governor. [applause] if we want to see a woman in the white house, which we do, we also need to see and support women running in governorships. these are executive leader positions and in the united states, 24 states have not ever come in their history, elected a woman governor. they are not alone. we have to do this so this is another piece of the puzzle. once you see it, you get it. it is not an issue anymore. we've got to keep on pushing state-by-state and i truly believe that once we break the glass ceiling for the white house, it will open up so many doors for so many women across the country in governors and mayors races and city council and you name it.
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that is why it is so important. >> senator mccaskill, your mother was an elected official. is she why you ran? a simple way of putting it -- i certainly thank my mother to father gave me permission be bossy and opinionated. [laughter] my dad reassured me that even though no one really wanted to date me in college, it would get better. [laughter] >> i can't even believe that is true. >> i was bossy and opinionated. was a masterful politician and every good sense of that word. what she taught me was there was never anybody in the room you needed to look past. that we havevalues in this room, the reason we are
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here, is not because you want anything from anybody. you just want your government to reflect your values and fighting for those values is an honorable thing to do. my parents did not believe people who run for elected office were involved. they did not believe government was the enemy. not necessarily government was the answer but government is not the enemy. that a kind of up ringing clearly many elected officials in this country did not have because they are busy selling a lot of cynicism and negativity that we've got to destroy government in order to be free. that is not the kind of household i was raised in. was terribly embarrassing for me when she ran. this is a quick true story -- she was the first woman elected to the city council in columbia, herouri so we go to swearing in when i was in high school and she had a cheshire cat smile because she was carrying a a brown grocery sack
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and she took the oath and after she took the oath, she opened the brown grocery sack, being the first woman elected, and took out first a vase of flowers and seven on her desk and then a picture ofnk -- us and took out an apron and tied it on. i was like ,"oh, my god." all four of us children did not know her. she was that kind of flamboyant -- she grabbed life by the jugular and shook it and i have never met a stranger -- and i am sitting here because of her, no question in my mind. [applause] >> stephanie, that story speaks to the weight women make decisions about running. if they don't have a role model, how difficult is it for you to
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convince a woman that she should run for office i don't think there is a woman in this country that does not have a role model now. >> they are either in their life directly where they are serving in the united states senate. i remember talking to a woman about running for congress and this probably sounds familiar -- we should ask stacy her story of deciding -- we were trying to recruit a woman to run for the house in wisconsin. she was so close to running and we said you could do it. and said i don't know what to do with my kids. well, i did not exactly know what to do with her kids because i don't have the pleasure of having my own but i said i know somebody who does. i got on the phone with congresswoman every wasserman schultz who is serving in the house who has three kids and ran with an infant, she gets it. sure enough, the two of them got together and i got a call back
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30 minutes later and our candidate was in the race. this is the connection that we have made across the country. stacy, i'm sure you have a similar story of going through that process and the family support and the kids looking at you. tell that story. most of the folks probably know that when i ran for the iowa senate the first time, i was pregnant. our baby was born two weeks after i was elected. knows.crazy as everybody it was her fifth child. just being newly elected and running pregnant -- it is an interesting experience but you can do it because i am -- when we decide to run for office
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and we have children and we talk about showing young women that they can do it, i think it is almost as important as showing young man that we can do it. as a mom of five boys, you change the way they think. and how they perceive things. that really makes a difference. >> you mentioned the polling in caucus.ghtly democraticas a 98% said they were ready for a woman to be president. but when asked if there is a gender difference in leadership, 78% said yes. and is that a detriment or an asset for a female candidate? >> i think it is all good because to assume that men and women are the same -- we are not exactly the same. there are some differences.
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that's why it is important to have so many diverse into voices in all this. in the polling which i thought was incredible, the voters not just here in iowa but in some of the other battleground states, particularly in iowa where they had other issues that were at for women, they saw that women right tradeght the ortiz and judgment to the job and that they are willing to put family and country before partisan politics and will help end partisan bickering. i don't think anybody in this room -- [applause] absolutely. is what we have already been saying with the women who have commented ever been whether it is the state legislature or in congress, they really do find ways to get things done. it is not always easy, i know, for anybody serving in the legislature but they do really work hard together.
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because of those examples, you can see what a woman president would be like in trying to find solutions to work with everybody. i'm not saying that the men don't do that, they do. but we do it all the time because we've got to do with their families all the time. it is hard. with all the boys at home, i don't know how she gets everything done but she does. >> a day in the office of a senator or the president of the asted states is probably -- complicated as a mother of six. there is a lot of moving pieces and that's the balance. >> jessica, christie vilsack made the theme of her campaign that she was not a partisan candidate. did that affect things? >> obviously, we were not successful in electing her but it was effective in the way that people realized that they had a choice in that campaign.
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specifically, we were running against somebody who was a tea now seemingly running for president and very extreme. when wewhat we learned looked at the race and kristi's message in general and polling and information we got -- people were sick of the bickering in washington. no offense to the great senator here but you don't get a nine percent approval rating when people want to get things done. not though it was successful, it sent a message you can run a campaign on positive issues and positive holocene initiatives and talk about how you don't have to go back and forth against each other. when you get to washington, you can build relationships and get things done for your district. i'd think it is a ring that other people running can use --
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i think it is a thing that other people can running can use because people were drawn to that theme. >> senator mccaskill, with the women in the u.s. senate and the idea that women are collaborators, how is that working out? there is a choice between combat and compromise. i think women naturally gravitate toward compromise as opposed to combat. it is a big generalization and their is always exceptions to every rule but i watch my women colleagues, particularly watch how we work with our republican women colleagues. when we are trying to figure out if something is doable, i go to susan collins and ask what she thinks. ayotte andhkelly there is this sense of we can not have toois and
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much testosterone in the conversation about who is winning and losing. that is one of the things about our politics that i think we forget. it will be hard because we have a divided government and our family fathers allowed -- our founding fathers allowed this to happen. the house of representatives has a mandate and the american people think the senate has a different mandate and then you have a polarized president which is not his fault. he has tried. that is the kind of stew that does not result in everyone holding hands and singing "kumb ayah." that's why women are important to this. aghast at the incredibly important legislation of violence against women being kicked to the curb the house of representatives -- who did we turn to to get speaker john banner to put it on the floor for a vote even though the majority of his caucus had not
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embraced it? it was the women in the house, the republican women in the house. we put pressure on them and said step up, put pressure on your leadership, or do you really want to wear the manifold for the rest of your life that it was your party that stopped this life-saving legislation for millions of women across the country? it worked. fought for funding for planned parenthood where we united across the aisle, women, that understood that you'd not produce abortions by -- you don't reduce abortions by reducing the ability to give birth control. [applause] i'm from the midwest so i can say with authority that that is just dumb. [laughter] we stood shoulder to shoulder as women so i think even though it
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looks like a mess and many days it is a mess, there are many rays of hope and we have had more of our colleagues feel marginalized by the extreme elements in their party that are willing to come forward and work with us. we saw it on immigration, the farm bill, republicans in the senate willing to work with us. if it would only catch fire in the house we would begin to make more progress. stephanie, in 2007 after hillary clinton said she was in it to win it, she often said she is not running because she is a woman. she is a woman running because she thought she was the most qualified for the job. that seems to dampen the who goent of people thinking that i am seeing a candidate who may be the first female president. how do candidates negotiate that in trying to maintain the excitement about a female candidate while at the same time
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not making it about the fact that they are a female candidate? >> for any woman candidate to be successful, and we have proven this over 28 years on emily's list, it is about who the best candidate is. it is not about gender when you go into the voting booth. it really isn't. you have to make your case as a candidate whether you or a woman or a man or democrat or republican, you have to make that case. she is right. we want to elect the best person for president. there is no one in here does not want to elect the best person for president. i want to say to open your minds because there is a list of women that could be on that list and should be in that debate. that is the-- difference of this conversation. that is really important. hillary clinton is absolutely prepared, particularly, she was then and after four years of being secretary of state, she definitely has it now. we also have these incredible women on the bench who happen to
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be women who can really be great presidents. that is the important piece of this. as we look forward, that is something we have to keep in mind here. >> another thing she encountered -- you were anat obama supporter -- they did not want to re-litigate the clinton years. that caused them to support barack oba clinton. how does she address the fact that she has a record to defend and she has to defend her husband's record as well? >> i think her job as secretary of state has solidified her thating as a candidate happens to be married to a guy who used to be president. is not that his presidency would in any way to find her presidency. i think it is important to
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remember that we had two candidates for president in 20 -- in 2008 that were amazing. these were historic candidates that made all of us that are democrats so proud of our party. it made us so proud of our country because the twos amazing candidates are running. i said to my friends who were disappointed in me when i supported barack obama -- i did not say i was going for a good old boy. this was an extraordinarily difficult decision. it was a difficult one for me and i think in many ways it is a difficult thing for our party. the good news is now we get to make history twice. we get to make history in 2008 by electing an amazing leader, president of united states, and we get to turn around again and do it in a few years. it is our hope, anyway, that she decides to run. [applause] >> what a great party to be
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part of to have that opportunity where you are so proud of the candidates who are running for the white house. i think we would be remiss to not mention the cast of characters in the republican primary last go round and the ones we are starting to see already, some of which i believe are here in iowa as we speak or on their way including rick santorum who wants to get rid of all contraceptives, by the way, and ted cruz was to shut down the government, which will just destroy women and families and all americans from the things they need like social security and medicare. these are the cast of characters on the other side. the senator had mentioned the difference of women balancing compromise versus combat. i watchedl you -- as the women in the senate work together across the aisle, they are arming up to face combat when they do that.
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these women are tough as nails and can handle any situation put in front of them. i don't have any doubts about it. that's why we've got a really good bench of democrats ready to run for the presidency. >> a lot of people talk about07 and 08 - being from iowa and talking about caucuses, i always say this is a snapshot in time and we can always go back to 2007 and 2008 and re- litigate what happened there but it is a new playing field and a new ballgame. it is apples and oranges when you talk about those years and what will happen in 2012. the iowa electorate has even changed since then, i believe, and the people interested in the caucuses have changed. there is enthusiasm otherwise this room would not be standing room only for electing a woman or cameras in the back. people are very interested in this. as well as the other women potentially who will run.
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we can talk over and over about what happened then and i can give you my opinion of what i saw and how there were problems and good things and bad things but the reality is, people learned lessons and it is a new day. >> you also managed a candidate whose husband had statewide success. in hthe voters interested im and her? >> that's a great point because in the beginning, every news article talked about how christie vilsack was the wife of tom vilsack. he was a beloved person in the state of iowa so she obviously was in love with her husband that was something to embrace. the reality is that by the end of the campaign, she became her own candidate. there is a lot of people who run for congress or run for governor other offices who are somebody's something. in reality, she became her own
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person. was it frustrating to her? maybe sometimes, i don't know. i think she felt like what she had done and accomplished was she was able to run a real campaign and really take on three point $4 million in the fourth congressional district to show the rest of the people -- take on $3.4 million in the fourth congressional district. afterwards she did incredible things. i will also want to ignore some of the people here who are behind the successful men -- obviously, lieutenant governor sally pederson is here. harkin - it was an amazing experience to get to know her and i don't think the senator would be where he is today if it was not for her as an amazing woman who was the first woman in their family to get elected. that is also important. [applause]
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>> ruth has a special place among senators and it's not unusual for us to call tom harkin ruth harkin [laughter] 's husband. [laughter] you may have noticed there is a microphone standing in the middle of the aisle so if you would like to line up if you have a question -- i will ask one final question of the panel so come forward if you have a question. whenthere come a day soon either the democrats or the republicans nominate a woman as president and a woman as vice president? >> absolutely. >> yes. [laughter] >> i don't know. you just don't know. why wouldn't it happen? why not?
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we definitely have the votes to do it. hillary clinton/elizabeth warren has a nice ring to it. [laughter] i don't know if either one actually wants to do that. amy klobuchar/claire mccaskill -- it will happen and we have come to a place where i expect to see a woman on the ticket every election we are in now. i really do. i think we have come to a place where there is such a pipeline of women who are ready to go. the ones i have mentioned and then there is a whole mother group coming up, the attorney general of california. kathleen cane from pennsylvania. you will hear from her. maybe10 years, maybe 15, 20 but there is a group that is coming up. it is because we work so hard over nearly 30 years, particularly with emily's list
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on the democratic side, to ensure that women run and have had success that we now have a great pipeline. i will also add for everybody who is here, we need to continue that pipeline. this is not about one woman and one presidential race. our is about changing society and culture. i think we can do it. >> i don't think anybody else is lined up yet so i get to ask more questions. let's talk about the senator's, the female senator, who is coming to our state soon for a political event. jessica, what can you tell us about her? >> clearly, she is qualified to do anything she wants to do and has a lot of benefits being in good proximity to our state. i believe if she wants to run for president, she would be an amazing candidate. >> what can you tell us about her race in minnesota? klobuchar --
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you just don't know. >> she could possibly be the most popular senator in the country. has a 78% approval rating. i work in the beginning of her race. it was tough in the beginning. by 20 points and did the same thing in the last election. by 20 points and did the same thing in the last election. she solidified her standing across the country and people respect her. i think if she is willing to run, she will be formidable. >> i think we have a brave soul here. [laughter] in more ways than one. >> good morning and i want to thank you for coming out. we stand behind you when you say we meet more women -- we need more women to be leaders in our nation. -- whatquestion i had is the plan for emily's list to
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bring more women into the pipeline? >> thank you for asking. emily's list has been involved in>> i think we have a brave sl here. [laughter] electing all of the current women of color who serve in the house right now. and the senate but the numbers are not as good. we need more women in the senate, period, and it is a huge priority. when we talk about presidential campaigns -- the neck generation the list.re others on there are great women coming up the pipeline that you will get to know in the years to come. we are very engaged and doing a lot of training. we go in as an organization and bring women in together. the last cycle, we trained over 1300 women around the country, a very diverse group of women from all different races and ages and geography to run for state and local office.
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we're going to continue doing that. we got got to keep the pipeline going. >> senator mccaskill? >> one thing we have to stay focused on, those in a leadership capacity, is our state legislatures. you can probably speak to this -- there is a mission to be done in our state legislatures on women and voting on a variety of topics that are anathema to the but thisof america extreme wing of the republican party has really taken root and done very well in state legislatures around the country. that is a place where we really all need to focus on who is running for the state legislature and who can we get to run for the state legislature and that's where we got to do all hands on deck. i think there are many women of color who have great leadership capacity but have not had the mentoring or the encouragement.
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that is something we all should take on responsibility doing. thank you. [applause] [indiscernible] i was also in the legislature but i helped found an democraticn called activist women's network in iowa and that's exactly what we are doing is recruiting women to run for office. board, we have some women of color and we recently had cities, sessions in two lee county and for madison and we are out talking to women. just as we finished, one got up and announced her candidacy for school board. it is happening. cities, lee county and[applause]
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>> i love it. andshe brings up i'm bored organization known as dawn's list. emily's list is busy helping that organization and there are similar organizations. we will be coming into iowa to help and with a political opportunity program training to bring women together. we are looking forward to doing work with you in the months and years to come so thank you. this might be semantics, but how do we make women's issues men's issues? democratic platform issues, independents - it seems to be we are locked
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into partisan arguments. >> i would not be here if a wasn't for voters in missouri. it is about 1/3, 1/3, 1./3 and 30% of missouri would not vote for me no matter what and there would be 30% of them who would vote for me no matter what. there is a middle. most of those folks in the middle are perfectly willing to it seems to be we are locked intovote for a republican or democrat. compromise, they like moderation, so i think that one of the things we need to do is make sure we are communicating always with independent voters across this country. ofwe always put on our hats being a political party first, we will lose those independent voters. we've got a wonderful opportunity in this country now because the shining objects and the republican party do not translate well to independent voters. they translate very well in the base of the republican party and well --now this very
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your caucuses are famous for picking the republicans that are not anywhere near the middle. [laughter] that is an opportunity for us. about theinue to talk issues that most americans care about witches college affordability, having a retirement, is there healthcare, is the bridge down the road safe, can i drive over it? as our saysd,ean -- barbara mikulski says there are no macaroni and cheese -- there are only macaroni and cheese issues to talk about. these are the issues we are focused on and when we talk about those, we will get more independent -- voters than steve king, ted cruz, rand paul and all the others. [applause]
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>> i am one of the team leaders in beaverdale, as we call it. problems that i have is that they don't -- is that women don't want to get involved in voting. what do we do to energize the women so that they will not only run, but they will get out and vote and support female candidates for whatever? shy awaythey don't from their opportunity or responsibility as american citizens. >> this is an incredibly important question. into the 2014 election when we don't have a presidential campaign.
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we see so much drop-off, particularly of women voters in these non--presidential election cycles. one thing we have seen in our years of research and work at emily's list -- we do all the candidate work but we also do work with women voters and get women to vote and persuade them. part of the thing we have seen is that it takes a long conversation. it is not just one quick ad and you get a woman engaged. it entails a process of information. a lot of women feel they are not getting the information they need to make a decision. themmpaign people, we send so much mail and give them tv ads but ultimately, the most important conversation for women are one-on-one conversations with women. that is where this network we are trying to build and will be building and already have almost 60,000 folks joined, we want to build that network out so that
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women talk to women about the importance of getting engaged in politics at any level and the most critical level is voting. we have to have women voting. we have to have a conversation of why it is so important. the other piece of this we have found is that we have to walk through the impact of the vote which means what is the impact of the people you elect? the emily's out list website, you will see a study just on the impact of democratic women and what difference they have made in congress. it is astounding. what they have done and accomplished. that conversation we also need to have. it is not an easy process but here in iowa, you understand it is about one-on-one conversations. that is was great about the caucus system. we need to figure out how how to have those conversations in states where there are no caucus systems and we really need to get women engaged, particularly younger women.
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no easy way to do it. it is conversation. >> i don't believe in happy, positive campaigns. [laughter] >> talk to may. -- talk to me. i don't think it's effective to be positive about having things you would do in the district and i think that was a mistake. >> we talk to steve king every day. i believe you have to have more clarity and campaigns then i see. my husband is a great armchair -- whatever -- he never gets off i could use another word but the point is, you have to run on issues clearly. you're has to be a few of them
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and you have to hammer them over and over again. ,ne of them that i think obviously in iowa but elsewhere, is social security and medicare. i'm sorry but these are basics. this is why a lot of people, not talking about having women in the middle class, but a lot of people need this. obviously being threatens and has been threatens a lot since fdr. i do not see enough clarity and campaigns. i know there are social issues on which women run which are our talking we have been about that for a long time but i think there are basic issues women need to confront. -- i resent in a way, everyone running on the middle class. we have a large population that has become poor. these people have become poor through no fault of their own and this happy middle-class
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sense and a sense from emily's list as a happy, successful women, is not -- in some ways, it becomes a problem. >> aren't you a ray of sunshine? [laughter] i get what you are saying. you are saying is we have to have contrast. that we arest say going to all get along -- we have to show the contrast. >> i think african american women who are elected to congress are tough people who, in their districts, have represented the asic got level issues and everybody understands it. i'm not sure a lot of women who run really have the basics sorted out enough to communicate. in that i doe think most of the women i served with -- >> you certainly have the basics understood. [laughter] >> i think we fight every day.
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what we have done -- >> i'm talking about the campaign itself. >> i understand that women need to be absolutely fearless about being ambitious and being strategic. this is not sitting down for tea and crumpets. this is a tough business. you need to be laser focused on win andgy that will drawing a contrast that will not only make you the one people want to vote for but also make your opponent the one that nobody wants. it is both sides of that equation that are important. you just look at my campaign in 2012 and you will see a campaign where there was a lot of strategic decisions made that off,very risky, they paid we got the right candidate in the primary, and then he unfurls
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wayelf to the world in a that a lot of us draw a stark contrast. if somebody would have said before that race began that i would be the number one vote- getter in missouri, i mean, a fortune could have been made. [laughter] -- i was dead meat on a hook and i was done and we were able to turn around because we were fearless, strategic, and not afraid of taking risks. iat is one of the things that hope more woman embrace because i think it is something that too many women like you say have this idea that if i could just be positive and get my ideas out there, win and drawing a everything -- unicorns will sprout in rainbows will be everywhere and it is not that simple. [applause] >> with emily's list, and those of you who know it, 28 years of history, oh 108 women in the
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house, we don't do this because we tiptoed through the tulips. we do this because we win races. at the end of the day, it is about a contrast and what happened in 2012 was a clear contrast where women embraced -- women who were running and women who voted and even men who voted -- they are all the same. we have a republican party right now that wants to turn the clock back on our rights and opportunities. back, 1950s -- 1940s, i don't know how far back they want to take is that they want to take a spec and we want to talk about equal pay. it is more than minimum wage. they want to dismantle social security and medicare and figure out how to make government not work. if that happens, women and families will be left behind so
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fast it will make airheads spend. the contrast is clear -- we don't intend to just talk about madam president, we intend to happen -- we intend to make it happen in 2016. >> there is a woman behind you. >> thank you. >> i want to thank you all for putting on this event as well. senator mccaskill, you have been in my living room and i had tears in my eyes watching your election. [applause] i had tears in my eyes, too. >> i would like you to speak more about what emily's list is doing in terms of mentorships. the iowa house last election cycle in 2012 and i am sitting next to three women who are wonderful friends and mentors and teachers to me. i would not be where i am today without them. what are you doing in terms of hooking up women who are thinking about running were interested in public service
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because it is so key? stacey,d question is -- you can speak to this -- how can we convince candidates like me who experienced the devastation of a loss in an election to run again? because it is a horrible feeling. how can we tell women that you did it once and you lost but please, do it again? know very many women senators that have not lost a race. in fact, i cannot think of any. when i lost my race for governor lost -- i learned so much more in all the victories and it made me a better and smarter and stronger candidate and i came back two years later and now i am an incumbent u.s.
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senator. you can do this. anybody you loses, you learn and you pick up when you try again. we would not have women in important places around this country if everyone quit after one loss. of any president that have not lost races. everyone has lost races. >> we are talking about hillary but i counsel people that sometimes you have to run twice. in order to win. it is hard. you have to get your name out and becomenformation a respected candidate and it is devastating and difficult but it is not personal. can get back there and remember it is not personal, go run again. people voted for you. >> that's exactly right. >> i might be the perfect example for you. we just met a couple of weeks ago at the picnic. it was one of the biggest losses for us in the state senate when
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i lost my race. it was very visible and we never expected to lose. >> it was the most expensive race that year. >> i believe so. >> and here i am. i came back and i am running. >> how did that factor into your decision making? how did you put your name forward again after having lost? >> because i believe i think i can make a difference. i think that your was an anomaly, a bad year for democrats across the board. value to have a lot of give and i believe it and the people in i will believe in it and that's why they asked me to and that's why i am here. i think the people of iowa have asked me to run because of this. mentorsyou setting up is or other question. >> i am watching the mentoring happened right in front of me. that is what the goal of emily's list is. into dc asnd people individuals. we build a network of folks to
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turn to to talk about what it was like and what they need to do differently and to encourage each other. asked men to do the same with women in your lives and encourage them to run for office. we are still very far away from the and thet to percentage of women in office. we cannot do this by ourselves. we need women and men to help encourage and get women to do this. think about this -- the united states is 77th and the world and the percentage of women in elected office. 77th. that is unacceptable. we need folks to keep going. campaigns are not easy. no one is saying they are easy but i will tell you this -- they sure are worth it. thank you for what you are
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doing. >> one of the main problems that women face while running is the criticism of their appearance. we have to make sure our hair is straight and are close look just so. how can we help change that conversation and remind men that is about what's in here and not on the outside? >> that's -- we were just talking about that outside. one of the things you have to learn to do when you run for office is be realistic. i talked about strategic but you cannot be strategic if you are not realistic. first impressions matter. the matter the job interview. you have to look at a campaign is one long job interview. every day, you are interviewing for a job so every day you have to prepare that you are interviewing for a job. i will confess that i was thank you for what you are doing. >> in a store and someone asked me -- i said lord, yes i am. i told her not to take pictures
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in the underwear store. terrible but it is something you have to see that way. we all talk about hems, hairlines, husbands -- the three h's that women candidates have to deal with and weight. i have had some terribly cruel things said to me. said i was too fat to be this or that. these are realities. i would love for you to stand there and say we can fix that but i don't see any quick fix and instead, i think you have to view it like a job interview. >> i totally agree. i find myself looking at other people and saying that and we cannot do that anymore. you have to shut it down. people are going to say things about people's appearance and they will be negative and we all
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find ourselves doing that. those are the small things we can change. some call it out on a national is thend realize -- it realization that what people are saying is wrong and we need to say it is wrong. we are not going to put up with that anymore. i don't know any other way to do it other than when we start fighting arts -- when we start finding ourselves doing the same thing, we just say that it's not acceptable. >> i would hope at some juncture, the culture would shift. i still have hope as the generation of millennial's comes up and everything is online and every picture you have ever taken is out there. i cannot wait until those campaigns. aam in the middle of it as but the truth is -- i think it might help.
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we might be moving into a new phase on this. women, boy, they get it much harder than men. i hope we could end the appearance peace but i have worked for a number of men but i work for is three big major candidates and one got e-mails about how bad his suits were and i got e-mails about his weight and e-mails about his hair. i believe what is happening is that we are going to the lowest common denominator. we are not actually lifting the conversation up. we will bring the men down on this. that does not bode well for the culture and we've got to get out of the appearance piece and i don't think that will happen in the political world. it has to happen out of pop culture first and we need your help, actually, on that, all of us have to do that. >> a really good question. >> i think we have time for one more question. would anybody like to wrap it up? >> big final question, i know
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someone has one out there. in iowa, there is an attack being done through nitpicking in tele medicine through the iowa board of medical examiners and it will impact parenthood. protect rights under road be weighed and how do we maintain that? >> we should win elections. we have to win elections. who the policymakers are and who is in power are making those decisions and we are living in the aftermath of the 2010 election.
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this is insidious. the tea party -- right wing -- conservative -- public and are much as in dating the rest of the quite frankly, has decided that this is their moment and they are going to chip away at reproductive health care and women's health care in general. we are about planned parenthood, we are talking about cancer screenings, and birth control. this is serious family issues. these are economic issues. anybody who tells me birth control is a social issue clearly has not what birth control. it is an economic issue. all they know about his diapers. [laughter] they will know about them. we are in a very dangerous time right now. we have seen things we have never seen before. it is really rolling things
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backwards. what we just saw in the state of texas, the state is already passing the invasive ultrasound bill. is a case where at the end of the day, the one thing we have to do is win elections. that is how we fix it. [applause] >> i think that applause may signal the ending. your answers are now my questions. [laughter] >> thank you for this wonderful, wonderful interview. [applause] and as the president of emily's , and the organization is
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probably running this madam president program, i want to thank you all for joining us today in the first madam president townhall. nowhere better to start in the nation's first important place when it comes to presidential campaigns, right here in iowa. thank you for your hospitality. we are going to take this to new hampshire. then to nevada. you are going to see a lot more. i ask you to join this movement. sign up for the madam president campaign. then get your friends to do it, all of them. your sisters, mothers, daughters. then get your husbands and your sons and your coworkers, because we need them all. we can get this done. we can make history. we can also elect the very best person to be president of the united states. on that, please, another round of applause. to all those who have joined me today. [applause]
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is to iowa and electing a woman president. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]
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onwe are going to count iowa. we will out on you to nominate ted cruz and hillary clinton.
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akin, when he made that comment, i was really clued to steve and co. bear -- stephen colbert. >> yes, that was great for him. >> there will be a tea party primary, so he will have to pay attention to the right wing and not be able to dress up as a moderate. now, neck and neck. >> i really am hopeful. >> that would be exciting. >> nice to meet you.
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>> i just want to thank you for all of your support. i hope that hillary clinton wins this election because i campaigned for her the last time. i worked so hard. i was disappointed when she lost. is another chance. thank you for supporting us. for all yourmuch work. >> thank you very much. >> i am running for congressional district six. >> dead luck to you. .- good luck to you as well. i am running >> glad to meet you. >> i have three daughters. this was wonderful. i love your candor. for youy was cheering
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here in iowa. >> thank you. >> i am thinking about running for the first time. >> wonderful. uris for been a fan of some time. i am living here from bosnia. population.gh >> of course, we have a huge population. i have done a lot of work in the community. they are great. democrats. are good >> they are great democrats. >> so nice to meet you. >> hang in there.
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thank you very much. the republican national committee has approved a resolution to block two elevation networks from posting gop presidential primary debates. there are threats against cnn and nbc. the rnc wants to stop the airing
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of hillary clinton programs. it said the republican national committee shall endeavor to bring more order to the primary debates and ensure a reasonable number of debates, appropriate moderators, and debate earners are chosen, and that other issues pertaining to the general nature of such debates are addressed. wasvote in boston unanimous. minnesota senator amy klobuchar iowathe speaking to north democrats in clear lake. she is the keynote speaker at a fundraiser. she prefers democratic hopeful to isn't iowa iowa for a possible 2016 presidential campaign. here is more about that now. radio will be covering the amy klobuchar event in iowa. tell us a little bit about this event. she is speaking there but she is honoring hillary clinton. >> right, they are giving an award to hillary clinton. it is a gathering of democrats
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up north. each year they give an award to a democrat. amy klobuchar said she is coming .imply to help there is a democratic congressman here running for the senate. it is interesting that she is coming back. she said it is just to work with bruce daley. >> does amy klobuchar have any interest or is there talk about her possibly forming some sort of interest in running for president in 2016? >> we asked her in north carolina and she brushed off questions about running for president. we had activists from emily's list here last week and they were promoting a generic female for president and amy klobuchar .as one of the names if you look at pretty much any hillary clinton
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does not run, amy klobuchar is almost always on that list. >> a quick reminder, you can see senator amy klobuchar's comments tonight from iowa starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern. you can listen on c-span radio or watch online at c-span.org. speakers include john edwards in 2006 and barack obama in 2007. hillary clinton is being honored but she will not be there. tonight on c-span's encore presentation of first ladies -- >> she was very proud of her husband, no question about that. she supported all his decisions. but she was a very private person. it was fine for her husband to be in politics and go to washington and be in the senate and congress, but she did not want to be part of that. yet, she constantly supported his decision to do it p richie
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was very much a supporter during his impeachment. i know there are things that and ittributed to her was that she should be back home and things of that nature, but she believes that her husband would be acquitted and would be proud of him when he was. she knew it would happen. presentation continues tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. [applause] >> senator john mccain asked his constituents to support the senate immigration bill tuesday at a town hall meeting in
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tucson. he rejected a plan endorsed by other republicans on a government funding measure, defunding the healthcare law. thank you. i know you have a message for me. if you will wait until i finish my two hours of comments -- [laughter] would beg remarks, i glad to hear from you and other members of the audience. can you hear me ok in the back? no, ok. thatve a beloved friend passed away, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family. you today, as a usually do, to listen to you and to exchange our views and thoughts. i know we will all do that in a respectful manner, including respect for the views of others who you may disagree with. it makes it less fun.
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[laughter] but a lot more enlightening. hello, how are you? could i just say, thanks, it is great to be back. i want to talk to you primarily -- there are lots of things rolling on in the world and i would be glad to talk about those with you, but i would like to mainly have my remarks about comprehensive immigration reform. as you know i'm a the u.s. senate passed a comprehensive -- as you know, the u.s. senate passed a conference of bill that passed by a majority in the u.s. senate, and now it is up to the u.s. house of representatives. and i believe that this legislation is not perfect. i do not think that any series ofn that is a compromises that need to be made is perfect, but i also would submit to you that this microphone is provided to you by the democratic national
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committee. [laughter] so there are a few fundamentals of this issue that i would like to point out. one is that we now have, for better or worse, 11 million people who are residing in this country illegally. many of them have come here recently. they large majority of them have been here for a long time. i do not believe that any of us think we're going going to round up 11 million people and send them back to wherever they came from. [applause] you know, somebody is going to start booing, so please -- [laughter] don't we agree that we need to address this issue? people have different views as
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to how to address this issue of 11 million people who are living in the shadows in our country, and i would be eager to listen to your views. but the approach we took was to have a legalization of people who came here before december 11 2011, andvious year, they would have a legal status as long as they were able to make sure that they had not committed crimes and were law- abiding citizens. law-abiding citizens and then they would have a legal status. then at that time, they would have to pay a fee. because this legislation is paid for by fees that would be levied, not on additional tax dollars. after a 10-year time span, then they would be allowed to apply
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for a green card. them continuehave on the path of citizenship. part of that is that we have to secure our borders and get 90% effective control of our borders. have people who apply that will have to pay taxes, learn english, pay a fee, and get in line behind all of those .ho came to our country legally >> [inaudible] blame,ou are the one to i see. work release program. [laughter] to get in line behind all of those who came to this country legally or are waiting legally. there are some exceptions to that. one of them are the dreamers, a five-year time span.
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i would be more than happy to describe this to you. as far as stem -- science, technology, engineering, mathematics, postgraduate students who are in our postgraduate universities when they graduate, if they want to, they can stay in this country with a green card. over half the students and postgraduate are those that technology, engineering, and mathematics are non-citizens of this country. so we would give those students an opportunity to stay in the united states with a green card rather than going back to india, china, or wherever they came from. agriculture workers, we will have an expanded program for agriculture workers. we would also have the low income worker visas as well. one of the keys is 40% of the
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people in this country illegally do not cross our borders illegally. they came on a visa and overstayed that visa. the only real answer to that problem is something called e- verify. every person that seeks an ointment must have documentation that they are in this country legally. if they do not have the documentation, then if the them, thatres employer will suffer severe penalties. there have to be bounties for people who come here and hire people illegally. that is an important part of this proposal and we had the technology to do that. it is not a matter of not having the technology. there are other aspects. i would like to mention a couple aspects that might be of
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interest to us. before i go into that, let me just say it is the broadest coalition of support that i have ever seen in anything i have done in legislation. the chamber of commerce and afl- cio came to an agreement and they presented it to us. the agriculture workers and growers can to an agreement and brought it to us. we did not negotiate that, they did here it we have the evangelical community behind us. the catholic church is supporting it. it is the broadest coalition of organizations. the high-tech community is fully behind it. a broad coalition of interests across the economic spectrum of the united states that is in support of that. let me make a couple more points and then i will be glad to respond. is important to you to realize what the congressional budget office said. the congressional budget office is respected by one and all for their opinions on the economy.
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they are not republican, not to make rat, not liberal, not conservative. the congressional budget office says that this legislation would reduce the budget deficit by $850 billion over the next 20 years. it would add $300 million to the social security trust fund over the next 10 years. passed with as pathway to citizenship and expanded visa programs, arizona's economic output would increase by $616 million and 2014. 8016 jobs in this bill would increase the total personal income for arizona families by $2.5 billion in 2020. now there are people in this room who will say -- well, the border is not secure. the border is not secure, but it is a lot more secure than it was back in 1986 when we give amnesty to 3 million people.
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the answer to border security is technology. we have developed technology in iraq and afghanistan where we can use surveillance and we can detect. an example, in iraq for my one of the biggest problems that we face was the ied's, the explosives. they developed a radar, thanks to general petraeus, and it not only detects people and that activity, it tracks the back to where they came from. it is an amazing technology. with drones, sensors, towers, and with surveillance, we can surveil the border. the equipment we can do that with we got directly from the border control. nine sectors on the border between california and texas. and they assure me that if we put in that technology which was appropriated in the bill, it will not require additional taxpayer funds.
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we will have 90% effective control over our border. there is a lot more i can tell you about it. i am really interested in your views. i hope that our congressional delegation, who i respect and admire -- you know, they think very appropriately that we senators think we are snobs, and we are. by the way, as for republican happy -- em i am very [laughter] ask for your consideration? i ask your consideration because i think that a nation founded on judeo-christian principles should probably want to address this issue that we have before us. i and not saying it is perfect. i am not saying it should not be changed as we continue to go through the process, but what we
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would like to see is the house of representatives passed legislation, whether it be piecemeal or however they want to, and then we can get a vote of confidence between the house and senate. we can start a procedure and come out with legislation that would get majorities in both house and senate and signed by the president of the united states. i would like to close my remarks by telling you an experience that i had a long time ago. every fourth of july, senator lieberman and senator graham of south carolina and south carolina and i have gone to for theaghdad or kabul fourth of july. usually when we go we do a reenlistment ceremony or an try to spendny and time with the troops who are serving us with such distinction and honor. petraeus asked us to attend a reenlistment 220 americanome
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men and women in service who were reenlisting to stay and fight. 80 part of that ceremony was people who had green cards and were going to receive their citizenship. many of you may know that if you have a green card and you join there isary and serve, a separated path of citizenship. were going to receive citizenship at the same time. it took place in saddam hussein 's old palace and there was probably a couple thousand people there. i walked in and saw four chairs where the citizenship ceremony was going to take place. theyed about them, and said these individuals were killed in the last 48 hours and we are going to make them citizens. you know, when you see things
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like that, it gives you an idea of how patriotic and how wonderful it is and what a great opportunity we have in this country and how precious our citizenship is. i guess what i'm asking you is to consider that we have an unacceptable situation as it is today and we need to all work together no matter where we are on the political spectrum to try to resolve that issue. thank you for coming and i would be glad to answer any questions or comments or insults that you may have. think you. -- thank you. [applause] you for all your support. since we lost christina, we know you were right there with us. we appreciate that. -- [inaudible]
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many, many people. will you guys stand up? [applause] >> we want to thank you for supporting our background check on guns. [applause] >> along with your support, we would like to ask you if there maybe talkce -- about some common sense solutions. whether we agree or do not agree , as you mentioned earlier, we
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feel like there are some things that could be done. we would love to discuss more of that with you. thank you. >> i would be honored to do so. kellyd like to thank mark and others for their continued advocacy. no one can appreciate the pain associated with the loss of a child, so there is no way that i can ever provide you with the ept the knowledge that you will see christina again. we thank you. thank you for your continued advocacy. >> we hope you will meet with us at a later date. >> absolutely. yes, sir? >> i actually have a bunch of
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things i would like to ask you but i know i cannot do that. to thent to come back immigration issue for a moment. >> whatever is on anybody's mind , except the approval rating of congress. [laughter] >> i want to point out a couple of facts and get your opinion on what we should be doing there. paper,ay and in today's apparently we spent $13 million on 21 homes built in oslo, said to cost $600,000. it just shows the waste we have in government. i would like to see something that explains how any of that can be justified. >> [inaudible] i would be glad to have a conversation continued. it cannot be justified. they cannot be. and people should be fired.
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,> yesterday and the day before the justice department came out and said they were not going to go and file charges against the two border control agents who were involved in shooting and killing individuals. ok, it took two years to find this out. from what i can tell, there is no justification for this to continue to go on and there should be charges filed against these agents. almost a year ago there were two shootings in october involving agents in southern arizona. one had to do with friendly fire . in the idea that two agents were out there and they did not know that the other agent was out shot atnd they both each other. one of those agents was killed
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the superior of those agents should be held accountable. we have another shooting that took place at the border. a border patrol agent went up to the fence and shot through an opening in the fence and hit a 16-year-old child in the back seven times killing him. there is no justification for that. situation have been true and a mexican border patrol agent shot an american child running away from the border, what do you think would happen? how long is it going to take for us to hear about this? supposedly the fbi is doing the research on this. the border patrol will not give me information. the fbi would not give me information. i think i deserve an answer from either organization. the last thing i want to say is
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in your immigration bill, we're talking about adding another 20,000 border patrol agents. the agents we have, unfortunately a large number of the agents are not qualified to be in the position they are in what we need another 20,000 agents for, i do not know. >> thank you for your passion. all i can say is investigations need to be conducted. be -- sabotage. [laughter] a left-wing conspiracy. request and is serious and deserves a serious answer. i think you for your advocacy and your passion. when these things happen, there
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has to the investigation. there has to be oversight by congress. in some cases, there have to be hearings as the were in fast and furious where our government was sending weapons to mexico that were being used by drug cartels. there has to be an investigation when brian terry is shot and killed by drug cartel people. there has to be an investigation when a rancher from southern arizona was shot and killed by armed individuals which we assume were people who were members of the drug cartels. it is a dangerous place. when we have these armed drug across ouring drugs where thereizona are guides guiding them and
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bringing the drugs up to tucson and into phoenix and distributed throughout the country, we have a serious problem. it requires us to have a national design -- discussion. the problem is the drug cartels on the violent side. there is a demand for drugs in the united states. as long as there is demand, there will be supplied. s or havehey dig tunnl a submarine, no matter what it is, we have to talk about the issue of drugs in america. it is a violent place when you have armed cartel members bringing drugs across the border into our country. not excuse any action that took place on any of the incidents he declared. to some health think it is not dangerous when cartel members
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are bringing drugs into this country is not an adequate reading of the situation on the border. i have visited all the time. i think the answer to the border patrol is technology. i think you have a point about .dditional border patrol one of the things we need more of is customs people so we can expedite traffic back and forth. there are some of us here old enough to remember we used to be able to walk across and have back.in nogales and walke think about doing that today. you bring up problems on the border, and with this surveillance capability, we will be able to keep people back, and then we will be able these teams out. finally, the coyotes.
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we know these coyotes are the worst scum-of-the-earth people, and they are bringing people into tucson and up to phoenix and putting them in drop houses where they hold them in the most unspeakable conditions and then hold them for ransom that their families back in mexico. it is an argument for getting our borders secure, but also an argument for us to address the entire issue of illegal immigration. i thank you for your passion. yes, sir. >> [indiscernible] >> go ahead. >> you are not answering why and what we are going to do with border patrol agents. [indiscernible] child and kills him. >> every citizen of this country has the benefit of innocence of proven guilty. that is a fundamental quality
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of our democracy. there should be complete and thorough investigation, congressional oversight, and our system of justice exercised. the worst criminals still have the presumption in the united states of innocence until proven guilty. you may have already proven that guilty, but he is entitled to all protections of our laws. on the face of it, i think you may be right, but i would reserve judgment for the investigation and the courts. [applause] yes, sir. >> i am a member of the county medical society public health community. we have been working on trying to do something about guns. and first, i wanted to congratulate you for the stand you have taken on background
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checks. [applause] and i want to add i am not a member of your party. i am a retired naval officer. do i believe that we should better on controlling -- local trying to get some controls since we cannot get it to the congress. but too many of your colleagues are cowed by the national rifle association, and so we are hoping possibly, we want you to do something locally. we have a lot of -- in tucson, hops have a lot of gun s and people should go there and
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sell them to the cartels, to the mentally ill, and to kids, and gun manufacturers do not care who buys them as long as they buy them. i am hoping that you will exert your influence, and i know that it did not go through congress, and i do not have too much hope that it would. but wherever it could be used to help, among other things, as -- just pointed out [indiscernible] thank you. >> thank you, sir. thank you for your advocacy. we need a female questioner here. >> i think it is a very bad practice for the congress to get favors as far as the health care premiums are concerned. and i think if obamacare is such a disaster, then you guys should be willing to defund it and get rid of it.
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>> i totally agree. it came as a surprise to me that it happened. i strenuously opposed obamacare, but for us to have some kind of exemption card out -- i do not what happened, but to try to find out what happened and how it happened. in case you missed it, it will contribute to the favorability of congress. it is around 12%. i saw we are down to paid staffers and blood relatives. no one else. i was going through sky harbor airport and a guy said, anybody ever tell you you look a lot like senator john mccain? [laughter] i said yeah. he said, doesn't it sometimes make you mad as hell? [laughter] this latest act as you point out get your bids to that
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american -- this latest act contributes to the idea that people thatle members of congress divorce them from the challenges that they have. they are correct. all i can tell you is it is a surprise to me. i will look into it. i do not know how you justify it. yes, sir, could we just have this young man. then we will go to you. >> i am a student, and i wanted to know [indiscernible] i wanted to know if there is any proposition in congress to stem our demand for drugs as well is actually keeping them out of the u.s. >> which drugs? >> [indiscernible] marijuana and everything coming from mexico. you are talking about the border. i did not know if that apply to
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the drugs as well. >> i'm glad you mentioned it, because i am conflicted on this issue. as you know, people of arizona voted that marijuana will be legal in arizona for medicinal purposes, and that has been broadly interpreted. that has been the story in the case of other state in america. we also have a situation where we are intercepting marijuana at the border, and yet at the same time there is people who are growing marijuana legally for sale to those who need it for medicinal purposes, and we have seen in california and other states widespread people who have illnesses that require the use of marijuana. so, the attorney general of the united states the day before yesterday -- or yesterday -- announced that they were going to try to adjust the war on
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drugs to the most serious drug crimes. thatraws the conclusion they are not going to pay much attention to minor crimes. have is also a problem we today, and i always make up my mind on things, but half the people in prison today in the united states are on drug charges, and some on more minor charges than others, and there is such a thing as mandatory sentences which has caused dramatic overcrowding of prisons. federal courts have ordered california to reduce dramatically their prison population. this is really a conversation that the american people have to have. we have to decide what you think is acceptable in america and what we think is not. i would like to mention one other aspect of it, and i would be glad to hear your points. but i see movies and television
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programs where the use of cocaine in particular is glamorized, then i wonder if that is a beneficial effect on young americans. and so, we need to have this conversation, and i think it is pretty clear that there is at least in some respects a growing acceptance in the united states, and i am not saying that ofm one of them, of the use recreational drugs. thated to have conversation. i thank you for the question. can i go to this lady right here. she will bring it. >> my boss sent me and i have to come back with an answer. [laughter] >> sounds like discrimination. >> i work at a hospice, and we were affected by sequestration. we are paid solely by medicare.
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we're losing about $25,000 a month. her question is, what is the budget, what is going to happen october 1 if we have a government shutdown? we will lose all our funding, and we have 300 patients that are dying in tucson that will not get their hospice care. so -- and is the status quo -- do you think sequestration will end on october 1, or do you think the cuts will and end at any time? >> it has been wonderful, the growing acceptance and realization that hospice is really a wonderful way, if people choose, to spend our remaining days on earth. and the growth of hospice --
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and i have had relatives who have chosen to make that choice has been a wonderful and caring and loving way for us all to go to my sooner or later. thank you for what you do. on sequestration -- i do not know what will happen. i know from previous experience that if we yet to this shutdown of the government, the grand canyon and the washington monument and everything that what happened when we shut down the government, the american people will react in a negative fashion and will blame congress. there are some of my colleagues in the congress that say we have to repeal obamacare if we're going to raise the debt limit. my friends, that does not work. i want to repeal obamacare. it happens to be the way i voted, but it is not the way it will happen. we do not have 67 votes in the
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united states senate, which was what would be required to override a presidential veto. and so, i think it is not a right approach. what i do want to continue this effort, to repeal parts of obamacare, which are very onerous and are very harmful in my view to healthcare in america. i do not know what is going to happen, but i believe we will not shut down the government. i believe it is time the american people are heard they want us to sit down together and avoid what is turning into every year or every two years that we threaten people like you. it contributes -- i joke about the congress, but i am not proud of that. what i think is going to happen is some way we will keep you in business, and sequestration is not the answer. sequestration was a copout on
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the part of congress because instead of making the specific reductions that need to be made, like second homes that are $600,000, and it hurts our military because they exhibit exempted so many programs that the burden is being forced on the military. i will tell you one thing, you talk to your friends out at the base, they are questioning whether they want to stay in the military or not, when they are not allowed to fly, not allowed to maintain, not allowed to operate, not allowed to exercise because of sequestration. in the interest of full disclosure, i voted for it. dumbest vote i made while i have been in the congress. so all i am trying to do is sit down with democrats in the president and sit down with my
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republican colleagues and we stop this and stop it for a time instead of have this be so often that the american people are not sure and people like you are not sure of their future. yes, sir. >> thank you. i want to thank you for your leadership. i think washington needs were leaders like yourself. i think you are very courageous and if is very admirable. would are not busy, i like you to take me with you. >> my question is, how do you work with your colleagues? as you may have heard, congressman king has said a lot of hateful things, and he has hateful rhetoric. specifically, he has introduced an amendment that has not -- got passed past to
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defund deferred action, or daca, and how do you work with your colleagues so that does not harm the rhetoric of the republican party? >> let me respond to you first. the remarks that were made by congressman king -- it is a free country, he can say whatever he wants to. i can say that is outrageous and disgraceful to make a comment that people have calves the size of cantaloupes -- i will not repeat what he said. i have also a right -- he has the right to say what he wants to say -- and i think it is very harmful to the dialogue and to environment that we want foster in america, where we are all god's children. the best way to handle this is
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treat your opponents with respect. if you are disrespectful to those who disagree with you no matter who they are, then you diminish yourself and you diminish your ability to convince your colleagues. i will go to the floor -- i miss ted kennedy all the time because i used to spend half my time fighting like hell with him and half my time agreeing with him. twoe were freshman senators, democrat and republican, who got into an --ument about our imagery parliamentary procedure on the floor. ted came down to help the democrats and i came down to help the republican. we were nose to nose for about five minutes. freshmen fled the floor. we walked off the floor, and teddy said, we did pretty good, did we?
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we have to be respectful of everybody's views. taken me time to learn that over the years. when people disagree with you, you are free to respond, but if i can have an effect on this issue, it is because i have some respect for my colleagues. that is the best way asked the best way to get that is be respectful of the views of your colleagues even if you disagree. the gentleman behind you. >> thank you very much. i do appreciate it. i have one hard question for you. [indiscernible] you and i disagree on occasion. i am very happy [indiscernible] andmade some tough choices
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i think you made the right choices. thank you for that. on the budget -- why are we doing continuing resolutions? why have we not forced a budget? they should not be funded. they cannot because we are on a continuing resolution. >> thank you for your service and i thank you for your representation, and i believe i speak for a lot of us that appreciate the hard work that you do. delayed --ars, we've belabored for it, the democrats, for not passing a budget in the united states senate. this year we finally passed a budget in the senate. my republican colleagues in the senate do not want to go to conference with the house. i do not understand that. i do not get it. i went to the floor and said i thought we were wrong.
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it is a symptom of the gridlock that we have. and it is very unfortunate. everybody has to live on some kind of a budget. the congress is the only one that does not. it is not acceptable. >> i am one of those people who seriously appreciate you being here, and i appreciate your history of open-mindedness and fairness. the gridlock you just alluded to is almost beyond belief. my discussions with people i know, friends and relatives, it seems to me an underlying issue is racism. there is a lot of animosity toward the president. that is an observation. personally, i do not believe
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that. if you look at the places where racism exists, it seems to have their congressman support this. the congress is not doing what the people want, but racism is an underlying issue. youuestion to you is, to believe there is racism in this country, and is it affecting politics in the congress? >> sir, i believe that unfortunately there is racism in this country, but i think we have made dramatic progress over the last 20 or 30 years thanks to a lot of people. a lot of sacrifice was made. i think there has been, for example, in the military we used to have a segregated military in world war ii. harry truman integrated our military during the korean war. i would argue today the military is the best equal
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opportunity employer in america. so i think we have made dramatic progress. do i believe we have a long way today? i certainly do until we eradicate sexism. we now have a problem with sexual assaults. they're trying to grapple with that issue. we cannot have young men and women joining the military and some young men who are at the risk of being victims of sexual assault. i do not believe that racism motivates my colleagues. i believe what motivates my colleagues is a fundamental philosophical difference about the role of government in our society. and obamacare the best example of that. what you believe, we conservatives believe that less government is better, less regulation, and on and on. that is what we believe.
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president obama believes and he articulated in the debate that he and i had in 2008. he believes in bigger government, stimulus packages, he believes in funding of projects in my view that are already developed. we have seen huge failures of investments that we have made in certain mature industries. i reject that categorically. there may be someone somewhere, but i believe the opposition is because of a fundamental opposition in philosophy about the role of government in our society. and frankly, i reject the notion that people who have fundamental differences, which is one of the reason we have two parties, would have any base motives. yes, ma'am. >> on the subject of the military sexual assault -- [indiscernible] militarybject of
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sexual trauma [indiscernible] whatever you want to call it -- [indiscernible] it is a subject little talk about, especially for victims. a movie portrays my experience, and i would like to provide your copy of that so you can share with your constituents. >> thank you, i would be honored, and i have already heard about it, and i would be glad to see it. since you bring it up, i would like to bring remarks about it. there is a problem with sexual assaults in the military. there is a problem. for anybody to deny it, obviously the facts do not bear that out. i am proud of the military. i am proud to have two sons who have served in the military. i am proud of my family, for many generations. but this cannot stand, and action has to be taken to prevent further unspeakable actions such as this, and the
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question is, how do you address it? and the debate now is what is the role of the commanding officer and whether the commanding officer should be deprived of that responsibility or whether it should be reviewed or not under the uniform code of military justice, and we have been wrestling with it for a long time in the armed services committee. we will take up the defense bill, and you will see more debate and discussion and voting on that bill. i want to assure you one thing -- i think it has the attention of the members of the senate, and i hope everybody takes this in the right way. i think it is helpful we have 20 women senators in the senate, and i hope that does not mean that i'm saying that i am insensitive. but it is helpful in the senate to have that input that we are getting from many of our women senator colleagues. missouriccaskill of
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and senator gillibrand are on opposite sides of this issue, and i try not to get on the middle of that one. yes, ma'am. there is a microphone. >> thank you so much for listening to me. i work for an amazing company that services the hard-of- hearing individuals in the country, and it is an amazing service, and the fcc is proposing regulations that are against the ada act of 1990. they are wanting to have individuals push a captioning button on each time they use a phone, and a lot of time they do not remember and they miss the first sentence because they do not use the button. they want us to charge our consumers $75 a phone when they are already paying for the broadband internet and phone service. i am hoping that something can
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be done because we help individuals every day and we help the military and all those individuals that are hard of hearing. i hope you can take some action. >> i will have my staff interview you immediately of this problem. i was unaware of it. i will be glad to address it. but i will just say the americans with disability act i think was one of the most wonderful things he have done in recent years. there were some problems with that, but the fact is it is a model to the world. a lot of good things would not have happened if it had not been for that. thank you for all you do and we will be glad to have our people talk to you and address it. yes, ma'am. now, you do not have to read anything. >> i know. nervous. i want to thank you so much for
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being a part of comprehensive immigration reform. i am a citizen. my father got his citizenship and he worked hard for our family to be where we are today. i will read my notes. as the nation has moved up beyond a mentality of passage of a law -- [indiscernible] air raid for a comprehensive and humane solution that considers the economic benefit of bringing the undocumented of the shadows. my question to you [indiscernible] advocating for latino justice and immigration reform. what can we do here in arizona to help other communities understand the importance of this bill and how it can be passed in the house? thank you. >> i think you need to be active, but i really urge you to be respectful. i think it is important we not show disrespect, especially on
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an issue as emotional as this is, and i know that is hard to do for some of our people who have been heavily involved in these issues. i would also try to point out we do not always respond exactly to the will of the people, but it is very clear in poll after poll after poll that 70% or more of our citizens -- republican, democrat, independent -- support a path to citizenship if back taxes, fees, learn english, and get in the back of the line, that you see an overwhelming majority of americans want to move in that path. needat is what i think we to convince our opponents that this is the right thing to do at the right time. and i would respectfully ask the opponents of this
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legislation, what is your proposal? notanswer may be we do trust obama to enforce laws that we pass. that could be, but then we should not pass any laws if we do not trust the government to enforce them. and if the president of the united states does not enforce the law, there are ways to go to court -- because we have a judicial branch -- and get those reversed. a small example, the president made some appointments during a recess, which was unconstitutional in our view. we are fighting it all the way through the courts, to the national labor relations board. and it is going to be heard by the united states supreme court who will judge that the president acted unconstitutionally. that is the process, not saying we cannot pass laws to secure our border because they will not secure our border. that is not in my view the way to go.
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i will do that, and there's a young man who is very eager to rebut whatever you said. yes, sir. >> senator mccain, i want to echo the words of my friend, thank you for coming to tucson. we would like to see you more down here. thank you for coming down here and talking to the people. i want to talk about immigration reform. a big issue, thank you, and we appreciate your work, a tough political thing on capitol hill, and as a former state lawmaker, we need a comprehensive immigration solution because what we have been seeing at the state capital has not worked. it has only harmed our state economically. we need a solution from washington. i appreciate -- >> i think you are right, and if our entire delegation, republican and democrat, senator flake and i hoped it would help
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our organization somewhat, don't you agree? go ahead. >> i certainly do. with all due respect, we still need all the help we can get from washington. i call for that support. >> i have accumulated a lot of seniority. forever,t live contrary to popular belief. it should not be based on seniority. it should be based on virtue. he should have a level playing field of everybody competing for tax dollars. we should not have it spent on
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the basis of seniority or clout. otherwise, soon or later we suffer because we are going to have new members of the congress and senate. arizona sends a lot more money to washington than it gets back. what our job i think should be is -- rather than saying let me put her feet in the trough. that is where we might have a slight disagreement. >> we just need to get our money back. thank you for working on it. on immigration reform, i want to talk to the issue. i have not had it come up. a big issue, very important. you spoke to the comments on the largess of the senate bills, that corker amendment, which made it very expensive, believe you yourself made a comment that i thought was on the money that if we pass this bill we are going to have the most militarized border since the fall of the berlin wall.
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whati am asking for, is can we do to help a common- sense solution come out of washington, not this one size of an approach of building a wall on the border that when you go down and look at places on the border -- it just does not make sense. it does not make sense, and the politics in washington seem to favor that. what can we do to have a more commonsense approach on immigration reform? related to that -- >> let me respond. that is why we have the process that we pass a bill in some legislative house, we go to conference, and we can address some of the problems that have arisen that people have with the legislation as we passed it. that is the process, as you know. go ahead. >> thank you, and your comments on technology will do it.
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the bill managed hundreds of miles of the border, and we hope that can be addressed commonsensical. on another issue, in arizona and it is already hot and dry. we live in a hot and dry say. science shows our climate is changing. the consensus is clear that activities of humans contribute to a different climate. what do you think are the possibilities for addressing energy and climate in a way that will make sense to protect our quality of life and to protect our economy? coming from a state that is hot and dry, science will show it will continue to be hot and dry. what can we do about climate change? thank you. >> thank you very much, and thank you for your service. we will have to have a town hall meeting on the issue. it was barry goldwater who used to say we have so little water that the trees chase the dogs.
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that was a joke. you were supposed to laugh. [laughter] isyway -- i think the earth warming and i think the question is how you address it. i worry about increasing people's taxes. i think we can rely to some degree on some technological advances as opposed to increasing taxes on americans who i think are taxed enough, for certain, in these tough economic times. there is some good news. this fracking, we are now going to be an energy-rich nation. we will export natural gas to europe which will diminish the european dependence on russian oil, and this whole fracking thing is turning into incredible good news for america. it will make us energy
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independent for over a period, depending on how we do it in the next 10 or 20 years. natural gas is much cleaner. i think that is a lot of good news, and the technology is good. i think that with some incentives from the government, we are seeing automobiles with dramatically increased mileage. i have a car -- i have a ford fusion, and i never stop at a gas station. there is cars on the market that are much more fuel efficient than they used to be. it is the market that is driving that, so there are a lot of things we can do in incentivized technology, in my view, that we have not explored instead of raising people's taxes. because i just do not think that right now with americans
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still in a stumbling recovery would want to raise taxes. yes, ma'am. >> thank you. [indiscernible] were at your town hall [indiscernible] thank you very much. she asked me to tell you that. >> thank you from the bottom of my heart. >> i will tell you her. whenever we talked about immigration reform, being in arizona is like racial profiling. what is happening on the west coast and east coast and the canadian border? asiansall sorts of coming in through containers. does our immigration reform stop racial profiling and address that issue also?
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>> thank you for the question. the fact is because of the disparities in our economy and in the mexican economy, and understandably, many mexican citizens and central americans, south american citizens want to come here. canadians, because basically we have an equal economic situation, are not driven to come to -- when you look at the numbers, it is nothing in comparison to what crosses our southern border. and we need to make improvements there. i am not saying we should ignore it. i am saying the major issue is still across our southern border. i would like to give you a little good news. that is the mexican economy is improving there. there are some indications right now -- and he have not got enough -- that there may be a balance between in-migration
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and out-migration because the mexican economy is giving them an opportunity to live where they live. at is what all people have wanted to do unless they could. tigda unless they could not. i think there is some good news out of that. the greatest disparity between two nations in the world as far as economic conditions is the united states and mexico. that is improving rather significantly. they have a young president who is surrounded by some very talented people. as you may have noticed, they are going to reform pemec and will be able to increase oil production. they are talking about deregulating the communications industry it is totally controlled by one guy, the richest man in the world, as a matter of fact. it costs something like five times in mexico to make a phone
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call than it does in the united states. that is outrageous. we are seeing some signs of hope and life there and i would like to give you a little -- >> thank you for supporting background checks. i have visited your office since my daughter was murdered in 1999 with a gun that was legally bought in a gun shop. -- at a gun show. the majority of people who buy guns that murder people without a background check are not the mentally ill. it is criminals. [indiscernible] >> that may be true, but generally speaking, criminals kill criminals, ok? there are signs -- i do not want to get into an argument with you, especially -- but there are signs everyone of these people committed these harmful acts when you look back rest retrospectively should have raised alarms. someone who is a criminal, then that is much harder to predict
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what their behavior is going to be. it is my understanding from careful study of these cases, there were indications the individuals who did this should have rung an alarm bell someplace along the line. please go ahead. >> my question to you is about a national gun trafficking bill. there is no national bill that imposes criminal sanctions for gun trafficking. so guns can move pretty freely between states. gun trafficking is controlled by states at this moment. we are in desperate need of a national gun trafficking bill. >> i would be glad to look at it. if you have a proposal, we have a states rights issue here, but things that cross state lines become federal issues. i would be glad to examine it, any proposal you might have.
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i am open to looking at almost anything. >> [indiscernible] we have become very good friends for all these survivors, and i am honored to do. that. >> there is such a thing as a silver lining. but that is it. to be friends with people. i would like to on a personal note say that i have a dear friend who went to the military with you. >> thank you. a great american. thank you. yes, ma'am. ritanator, my name is garcia. speaking of americans with
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disabilities, here i am. i would like to thank you for coming to south tucson. i wanted you to know about how i wanted you to vote on gun legislation. "could you please ask him to come to south tucson?" he is all the time going to green valley. for disabled people,it is just too hard to get there. i did not even plan on this. i saw it on the news this morning. i was on my way to the doctor's appointment, but i felt obligated since i asked you to come here and you are here. [applause] i became disabled in december of 2010 due to a rare illness. i worked over 30 years. it killed me every time i heard senators, especially republicans, say we are takers. i paid taxes for over 30 years. i have a rare illness and i am disabled. a disconnect between federal and state of arizona
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reputation, arizona is one of the few states in this country, run by republicans predominately, where there was a cost of living raise for social security. it was 3.6 %. the state of arizona raise the eligibility for a program that was paying $100 a month for my medication to 3.4%. consequently, i was cut off. $100 a month, which i could no longer go to physical therapy because i'm single and i have lived by myself and i am trying to make it on my own. researching at night, i watch c-span because i need to keep my brain going if my body will not. thank you for all that you do. even though i am democrat, i vote for you oftentimes. [laughter]
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anyway -- what can we do to stop that? again, i contacted my record is -- my representative in the those immediately, in his office, in his district, and we are just stuck. arizona is one of the few states where our legislature will not -- i was told by my case manager when i got the notice that i was going to get the increase, my first concern was, am i going to lose this program? i was told no. the state will raise the eligibility so you are already in the program. guess what -- a few months later i get the notice. what can you do to help? giverst of all, i have to you a straight talk. i can help you with that or programs and we can do everything we can to make sure that you receive everything that you are entitled to.
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and i hope that that is sufficient to help you successfully live in an independent living fashion and environment. stateot tell the legislature what to do. i can recommend to them -- >> thank you, that would help. >> but i would be glad to come, but i cannot write state laws. >> arizona is the only state that does that, and they do that intelligently -- intentionally to cut benefits from people. it is not right --because we are the takers. >> thank you. you're not a taker. you're not. ok? >> i'm sorry. >> i will have somebody right after this meeting talk to you to see what we can do. >> thank you. thank you for coming to tucson. >> all the way in the back.
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>> it is a privilege to talk to you. my son met with you years ago. he was a congressional page. i have been a door knocker. i am a real estate agent, and i have had companies that keep all the -- and if you do not pay your mortgage and something is going on, i do what i do and byoticed that loans insured the government, fha loans, you are underwater, the bank is holding it and tries to get your modification. the modification in general speaking -- everybody would agree -- means you will get something for yourself. it turns out fha puts the partial claims on, people do not know what they have got, and banks are reselling these to individuals, where a car, 10
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years old, gets a brand-new price. people are choked in debt. they cannot move forward. the banks are not regulated. they never had short sales, these departments, or anything, and now all of a sudden they create these things and each bank has a different recall, protocol and people go to foreclosure. they do not have any way to fight to make some progress. what can be done to regulate these banks and get them under wraps? [applause] >> first of all, i think you are aware that the dodd-frank bill was supposed to, was advertised to make sure that none of these financial institutions were ever again too big to fail. you believe that? of course not. of course not. the reason why this recovery has been so uneven in my view
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is that mr. bernanke gave the major financial institutions free money and you do not get free money when you go out and sell a house to someone for their rich. -- for their mortgage. they do not get free money. that is wrong. what the major financial institutions are doing in making record profits and people like you and people you are serving are struggling. now we want to continue in existence fannie mae and freddie mac who were major perpetrators i find mind-boggling and -- if they people were trying to get a mortgage, jpmorgan, that would be different. but it has an uneven recovery. wall street is making record profits. we have businesses and homeowners who are struggling. i may sound like a communist, but the fact is this is becoming a very uneven recovery, and that is wrong.
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middle-income americans and lower-income americans are not getting the benefit of this recovery. and we got to look at why not, and we got to look at these big -- we had hearings, thanks to senator levin, on morgan's whale trade. they lost $6 billion in their trade. some of that was taxpayer- insured money they were playing with. how do you justify -- i'm sorry to get wound up -- but all i can say is you have my sympathy. i think it is good news that the housing market in arizona is coming back really well. thanks. i have always said it was the collapse of the housing market that started this. the recovery of the housing market is what will cause the recovery.
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so there's good news out there for arizona as far as the housing is concerned. you and i still know thousands and thousands of small business people in this state who are struggling mightily, and still nearly half of the home loan mortgages are underwater -- worth less than their mortgage. that cannot continue in my view. these people's mortgages have to be renegotiated. that was what i suggested years ago. you want to respond real quick? >> [indiscernible] if i get a new loan, you will get a calcic, someone to talk to you. these loan modifications,they are taking place [indiscernible] they are getting loans shoved down their throats that they do not understand. [indiscernible] there is a caveat they cannot sell again until the claim is
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paid. you do not know what is really going to go down. [indiscernible] it is not fair to the people. >> gotcha. my friends, i will be back to south tucson -- everybody is clear that i am supposed to be holding town hall meetings, and i thank you for your participation, and i hope we can continue this immigration reform. congress is in recess, and i hope we can bring people on board through the voice of the people. thank you, and god bless. theongress is out for august resource -- recess. the senate judiciary committee will hold another hearing to investigate domestic surveillance. chairman patrick leahy announced today after an audit revealed the nsa violated privacy rules protecting private communications nearly 2800 times in one year. no date was revealed in the
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article about when the hearings would take place. the republican national committee has approved a resolution to block tv television networks from hosting gop presidential primary debates. chairman's the rnc threat about their plans to air programs about hillary clinton. here is what the non-binding resolution says. resolve that in the -- the vote at the summer meeting in boston was unanimous. later today, the senator will speak to democrats in iowa. she is the keynote speaker at a fund-raiser. she is the first democratic hopeful to visit iowa for a
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possible 2016 presidential campaign. you can see her comments tonight from iowa live beginning at 7:00 eastern. you can listen on c-span radio or watch online hillary clinton is being honored at this year's event, but she will not be there. in the encore presentation 6 >> she was proud of her husband. she supported all of his decisions. she was a very private person. towas fine for her husband be in politics and go to washington and be in congress, but she did not want to be part of it. yet she constantly supported his decisions to do it. she was very much a supporter during the impeachment. other things were attributed to her, that she wished she could be back home and things of that nature. but she honestly believed her husband would be acquitted and was very proud when he was.
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she kept saying she knew it would happen. >> the encore presentation of our original series continues tonight at 9:00 on c-span. to fully fund the military since 9/11, we deprived the state department of funds. there is an enormous gap between the size and power of the pentagon and the size and power of the state department. i will illustrate it with two examples from bob gates, who was an outstanding secretary of defense for president bush and president obama. he gave a brilliant speech in a couple of years ago. we have more military personnel in one carrier battle group, the haved states navy, then we american diplomats all over the world. here is another, if that does not convince you. we have more members of the armed forces marching bands of
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the navy, air force, army, marines than american diplomats. >> this weekend, the history of u.s. diplomatic efforts in the middle east and his call for a return to diplomacy. saturday morning at 10:00 eastern. ld you define the american dream? he traces the american dream. the great depression through the 21st century. change the story when the truth is more exciting? foundings of the fathers at noon eastern. >> a round table discussion from the representative for center for american progress and cato institute on a number of issues, including immigration, efforts to repeal the nation's health care law, and gun control. from today's "washington journal." host: we are going to talk now about an intes

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